When we were young, we believed life was simple. To our five year old mind, the only problem that mattered was naptime. The smell of the mats filling our nose as we breathed, the cool relaxing air from the vents blowing down on us, the stillness of the room, and the silence of all other children. We were five, that was all that mattered to us in life. Now that we are 16, 17, 18, all that matters now is work, school, friends, and texting. All day long, all we hear is the buzz of talking teenagers spreading the latest gossip, people talking on their phones, and students standing in their own groups. Today we care more about ourselves than anyone else.

As teens, we hear so much going on around us, the droning teacher, our friends yelling in our ear, and our other friend yelling louder to be the first one heard. When we were five, we were mad if anyone raised his/her voice. Lately, we make the same mistake we raise our voice to be heard by one another. Now that we are older, we hear our parents try to discipline us more and try to make us do as were told. When we were five, they never had to beat around the bush with us for answers. Now, all they see is a teenager on the verge of losing everything. Now that we are older, we have so much more to learn.

When I was younger, I looked forward to coming home from school. It seems now teens dread the thought of sitting at home and spending time with their parents. It must be something about the silence and tenseness we feel, like we have done something bad. We were young though; we looked at our parents like they were gods and goddesses. They never did wrong; they were kind, heartwarming people. Now we think of them as those who wish to control everything we do. Parents are meant to be our guardian angels, but we have turned them into the demons we are inside. As five year old children, we were sweet little angels. Now we are evil, stuck up brats.

When we were younger our fights were about who had better crayons or where we sat on the floor. Now that we are older, our fights are about who said what and why, or who did this, and who did that. In our five year old mind if someone took a crayon, we would tell on him for it. Now we are older, and the fear of confrontation terrifies us so much, we don’t tell, but we hide from the truth. We are like snails coiled up in our little shell, to afraid to come out and view the world. When we were five, we had wide imagination and lots of creativity. Today, some of us are as skittish as a horse when it comes to showing how creative we are. We hide our imagination from the world in a small box in the corner of our brains.

As five year olds, we were innocent and worried about nothing. We did as we were told and followed most of the rules. We would look at the older people and wish to be just like them. Now we are older, and times have changed, and we treat others with disrespect and hate. We treat our parents like they don’t exist, and we treat our friends like they are easily replaced. We should go back to living like five year olds where the only problem that mattered was when naptime was.