Have you ever caught yourself missing childhood time? Not just the memories, but the feeling of it?

The slow afternoon after school. The activities in the evenings. The way you felt you have so much time and energy, you can conquer the world. The way happiness came without conditions. I don’t really enjoy schooling, I wonder who likes it? Some days, it hits you out of nowhere: you miss being able to exist without a constant to-do list that resurfaces so quickly you barely have time for anything else. Without a reason to laugh, dream, play, explore and run.

First, I wish to say this. If your childhood holds more pain than good memories, I see you and I am not here to reopen the wounds. This post is not intended to bring back hurt. It is about something else, the part of childhood many of us miss. The feeling of being present and free where now in adulthood, we often find ourselves thinking back to the good old days, carefree moments, simple, silly, fun that we had before. The board games are traditional games played at home with siblings and cousins. We play without thinking of winning.

Have you ever asked yourself why you miss it so much? 

It is not just nostalgia, it is deeper than that’s worth exploring.

Don’t you think we don’t need much to have fun and be happy?

The Simplicity We Are Craving 

I was born in the late 80s. Most of our activities involved sports games, and traditional console games like Sega and Nintendo. The handheld option was the monochrome grey-black Game Boy, DigiMon Battle. Even without all these retro games, I missed the times when my cousins and siblings were all here in our small little hometown in Malaysia. We played, screamed with joy and had so much fun. We played Hide and Seek, ‘Eagle and Chicks, Eraser battle, Lat Tali, Bottle Caps, Pepsi Cola, Throwing Guli, One Two Jus, and enjoyed the beautiful sound of fireworks during festivals, among many other things. These were simple games, simple toys like bottle caps, and guli (marbles), were all we needed to play. Even without any items, we can play happily with our friends and relatives. We don’t need much to play, to have fun! No bills to pay, no endless list of things to do, no deadlines except for school homework. We just had time to just be. We can play for hours, regardless of the weather, wet under the rain, sweaty under the sun. We have still much energy left after that. I miss listening to my grandmother’s story, the warmth and love. She took care of me when my parents were out for work. She bathed me and made sure I was never hungry. Simple meat porridge with sauce, she cut my fingernails, blow my ears after bathed me, apply some oil to my little stomach. She even pretended to be my mother when I was looking for my mother. She has gone now. I remember we acted like our favourite heroes back then, with a sword and movement, riding a motorcycle and think we were Kamen Rider, that time when Ultraman summoned his final movement, we watched with bulky TV with a rectangular cassette player, with many closed ones. We act like the heroes on TV, when we fight, we act like real fighting monsters, and we switch roles sometimes. We played the classic, pixelated versions of Street Fighter and Mortal Kombat. 

Remember how good it felt to just be free? We won’t call ourselves silly or stupid because that’s how we were.

Today, that kind of freedom feels like a distant memory. We are constantly being pulled in a hundred different directions, and we crave that same simplicity.

The Slower Pace

Remember when time seemed to stretch endlessly when we were kids? Days did not feel rushed. We would get lost in the moment, whether it was reading a book, playing outside or just being with friends. There was no constant race against the clock, no pressure to be productive. We only ask what time can we play, because there are some obligations we need to finish before we can enjoy ourselves. But when we are playing we don’t check our time, how much time we have, until our parents have to make a move. It felt like we could continue playing all day if there was no interruption. How crazy it was.

As adults, we often feel like we are constantly running behind. Time flies quickly without us realising that we cannot keep up. It seems like we have to run to earn money, and we have to spend so much time working sometimes during weekends because work often demands more of our time than we feel we have. I appreciate the convenience of using a delivery food service that seems convenient, so we can continue working, but at the same time, we squeeze in more work instead of pausing to simply go out for lunch. Sometimes we end up working even on weekends. We think of work even in our sleep. We have no time for ourselves to recharge. When I think back to those childhood moments, I realise how much I miss that slower pace. Maybe that is why we should consider slow living. We want that peace, that simple day without rush or deadline. We want to take our time to live fully in each moment.

The Joy That Came Naturally

As kids, our joy was real and simple. We did not overthink what we wanted to play. We did not care if were silly or not to have fun. Instead, we did not think much about how we looked. We don’t mind if people judge us. We did not post or perform for anyone. If something makes us happy, we don’t hold back and just laugh out loud. We scared each other for fun, enjoying seeing our friends get scared. We did not hide and did not feel bad about it. Joy is simple and we do not need to earn or chase it, it just comes naturally.

I miss all these moments sometimes.

Because now, it feels like we have to work for joy. We tie joy to achievements, or we are keeping up with everyone else. It is a reward we only get if we have been successful or productive enough. The results are predetermined by others. We have forgotten that every progress whether big or small deserves to be celebrated. Or even if we don’t feel you are making progress, the truth is, by just trying, showing up, and having the courage, that’s worth honouring. You deserve a pat on the back, just like when we were kids, we celebrated playing simply for the joy of it. Back then, it was not about winning or being the best, it was about the fun of playing the game. We should be proud of ourselves and happy for what we achieve. It is not just about what we achieve, staying in the game or the project or something that we are working on, even when things get tough. Just being there, smiling and telling yourself you are good enough, you are brave, The act of trying, the act of experimenting, discovering, failing, all these processes was the reward. Maybe as adults, we forget that when you feel like you are not progressing, as long as you are in the game, that matters. Being present and going through struggle is a brave act, that is worth celebrating too. In the adult world, we stopped celebrating effort and started only rewarding results. We have just forgotten how easy it used to be to be grateful and happy for small and simple things, without expectations.

Authenticity Without Apologies

When we were kids, we were simply ourselves, we did not need to be someone else. And that is enough. If we wanted to play, we did not need to ask if we were good; we just played. We used to explore without fear of being judged. Now we edit ourselves. But as adults, we stopped feeling free. We exchanged authenticity for approval. We measure our worth by productivity. We have more to-do lists and are caught up in expectations, trying to fit in or impress. And we hid the other side of us.

We were once free and alive, fully awake to our own joy, without apology or anyone’s permission.

We Were Taught to Live in the Future

Sometimes, it feels like thinking about childhood is irresponsible. We sometimes think that we refuse to move forward. Here is the thing, thinking about childhood is healing and reflective, it serves as a reminder that some parts of us were happier, free and curious before life got noisier and complicated.

It is only harmful if we get stuck living there instead of bringing what we learned into the present.

During childhood, we are often asked, even when there were times we were supposed to be free, adults kept asking:

What do you want to be when you grow up?

We did not realise back then but we were being trained early on to live in the future. To be prepared for the future. To believe that becoming was more important than just being. Preparation is important. But when our entire worth is tied to performance or future results, we start living in a constant state of not enough. The goal is not to abandon preparation but to reclaim presence, to allow curiosity, joy and exploration to coexist with ambition. Not to forget rest, we used to have unlimited energy, don’t you think as we grew older with more obligations, we are supposed to have more rest to recharge? Being alive today is a gift we should not overlook, and today deserves to be lived fully as well.

When we look back and say we miss our childhood, what we may be missing is the feeling of living without pressure to become anything. The freedom before those questions and decisions weighs us down.

Contrasting back then, you could build a sand castle without being an engineer, you could sing without being an artist, you could still cook without being a chef, and you could simply exist without attaching your worth to an outcome, title or checklist.

Maybe we miss the version of ourselves that was free to enjoy life without needing a justification for it.

Child – Adult Transition

Some may think it is immature to think of childhood. When we think of it now, we are not just nostalgic for the cartoons or the toys. No pressure, no expectations, no plans.

It is different in adults. We expect to be productive all the time, we feel guilty for resting or playing, and we believe we must earn joy through achievement. It is not about having zero expectations.

It is about letting go of unrealistic perfectionism, and not over-planning and overthinking the future and expectations.

Plans provide structure, aid decision-making, offer direction, and help us be responsible in our family life, finances, career, and health. However, when we over-plan, we lose our presence in the current moment and forget how to enjoy it. This happens because we are constantly chasing the next milestone, neglecting other aspects of our lives and postponing joy until everything is perfectly figured out. We seem to have plans to survive and execute, but if we take it too far, we will suffocate ourselves. To feel alive, we also need unstructured time, space to discover, create, try, make mistakes, fail, rest, and permission to simply be without needing a reason. To mess up. Not everything needs to be justified.

Instead of asking what you want to become, we could be more intentional by asking ‘How do you want to live?

This shifts everything from chasing titles or achievements. It’s about designing a way of being and the life you enjoy.

Careers could be something you love not identity. Success is based on feelings and personal values, not a metric of comparison or just the outcomes. You like the process of doing not just the destination.

Maybe that’s all this nostalgia or something we can learn from our childhood moments.

Take the walk, enjoy the process of walking.

Walk with peace and not running from anything.

Not to go anywhere, but to come back to yourself.