Why I'm Obsessed With My Childhood

The speaker, Kayla Roick, discusses the importance of childhood and its impact on identity development. She shares her personal experiences and how her childhood memories have influenced her writing. Kayla references an article about how children develop their sense of self through play and highlights the significance of play-based learning in emotional and social development. She also explores the concept of nostalgia for childhood and how it can be a way to escape stress and reminisce about simpler times. Kayla interviews her younger stepsister, Brooklyn, to gain insights into a child's perspective on feelings and memories. The interview reveals that children can also experience stress and have a mix of emotions. Overall, the speaker emphasizes the value of understanding and cherishing one's childhood experiences. Hi, my name is Kayla Roick and today we're going to be talking about childhood. First of all, welcome. This is my very first podcast ever, so I'm not sure how it's going to go, but I've done some research and I can't wait to talk about this with you guys. Some things we're going to be diving into today is how childhood is weird, awkward, fun, sad, and why it's important to developing into who we are, how we use our childhood to develop our sense of identity, and also why we think about our childhood. So you might be thinking this is kind of a random thing to talk about, and it kind of is, but the reason I'm choosing to talk about it today is because I oddly find myself writing about it a lot. Every time I've been in a creative writing class and inspired by a poem that I feel really, really passionately about, it always has to do with my childhood, and I just don't know why I always resort to this, and I wanted to do some research about it. The first article that I used in my research was called How Children Develop Identity, and reading this was so interesting. I can't even tell you how many aha moments I had reading this, but a lot of what it says is how children make their identity when they're really, really small and really, really young, and reading this made so much sense with how I've made my identity as a kid because a lot of it was learning through play. A quote specifically that really stands out to me is, where we really, truly start seeing social identities begin is within families and their culture. This quote is amazing, and I feel like it makes so much sense with me personally, and I'm curious if it resonates with you, the audience, because I learned so much learning through play as a kid, and so many of my memories specifically come from that. I love this quote, and another quote that really stands out to me in this reading is, children develop self-identity and begin to form relationships. Play contributes to children's emotional development, and since play requires the use of multiple motor and mental functions, children develop various skills as well. Play-based learning aids children in developing moral and social skills. As a future educator, I've learned a lot about the importance of learning through play, but seeing it as just a person, as a person who had a childhood, it just makes so much sense to me, and I know I've said it already, but so many aha moments reading this article. Something that is especially powerful to me is just the importance of learning through play, which comes up so many times in this research. Learning through play, which I've learned in many of my classes and also in this article, is how much it does for your development. Obviously, like the article said, you're learning motor skills and mental functions, but you're also making relationships with your friends, with your peers, and also with yourself. Thinking back to my childhood, I played so much. I played outside. I played with my cousins. I played on dirt bags. So many ways to play, but just thinking about all the ways I've played, it makes sense with how much I developed and also why so much of my identity comes from this play, this play that I had as a kid. So I got to say this article is really, really helpful if you're trying to understand how identity plays a part in, oh my God, why am I talking so slow? Why identity plays a part in who you are and how you develop as an adult. Having just learned about why play is so important to the development of who we are and how we identify as adults, I still can't figure out why my childhood is so important to me. And it may seem obvious our childhood is important because it's who we were, but it's a little bit deeper than that. Reading the article, Why Do I Miss My Childhood? Understanding Childhood Nostalgia Depression, really, really unpacks a lot of these thoughts that we have but don't realize. Something that I couldn't shake off was the very beginning. It starts off with a quote, To begin, becoming an adult can be challenging. It can be often confusing and overwhelming, especially when relationships, job applications, and even fear of death come into play. Adult relationships are complex. There's another one, very similar. You might be nostalgic for simpler days and miss your childhood. It could mean you're exhausted from your current situation in your life. Often, it's said people miss their childhood because they're bored. It can be a sign of loneliness. So I don't necessarily feel like a lonely or bored person, but I can't tell you how much I relate to being stressed with my life. And without realizing it until today, looking back at my childhood was a way for me to relieve stress and think about how easy my life was as a kid, where I was writing poems about just me running in the grass and climbing trees. I couldn't figure out why I was always writing about these and how and why they were so important to me. But reading this article helped me clarify so much about why I am the way I am and a little bit more about my life and why I look back into that all the time. And now we read my favorite quote in the article. As adults, we also miss our childhood because we've become jaded. Even though there are many things in this world to explore, we often become enslaved to work and social life and lose our sense of wonder and openness. The clock timeline of adult life replaces childhood freedom. The lines, the clock timeline of adult life replaces childhood freedom is so powerful. Thinking about everything I've written about my childhood and how it ultimately is tied to freedom helps me understand so much about myself and how stressed I feel in life and also why I'm constantly looking back at my childhood because I'm missing the days where I was a free, fun, dancing in the grass kind of kid and now I'm going to work on Tuesday from 7 to 12 and have class and I'm in a scheduled regular routine. Just missing the freedom and randomness of life. These articles are so important to me because they've taught me a lot about how my identity has formed as a kid, how it's stayed into who I am as an adult and also why I keep looking back at this. Looking back and learning from these articles helped me learn so much about myself and my childhood and what it is that makes me feel this way and I can't even say it's such a relief to know I'm not a crazy person always looking back at the past. Just someone who's really stressed in life. Luckily, I live at home with a little stepsister who is six years old and I had questions for her because, you know, she's a kid with freedom and life and very little rules. So I interviewed her and asked her some questions. Before our interview, I wrote down some questions that I was curious what her answers would be. I went downstairs, asked her to color and here is our interview. Hi, my name is Kayla and who am I interviewing today? Brooklyn. Yeah, Brooklyn. So I have some questions for you. What are you like? I like ice cream. But what are you like? Like, what's your personality? My personality is that I'm really funny. That's true, you are funny. And you're a good kid. What are some things in your life that you really like? My mom, my dad, my mom and my sister. Thank you. And then I was going to ask, what are some of your favorite memories? Because I remember sometimes you tell me about like things that... When I was a baby, in the morning time, I would get ice cream, I mean I would get whipped cream and squares. Really? Do you have any other memories that you really like to think about? Or that memories that make you really happy? I used to take a bath and I used to take a bath and the sink had a person. Really? I don't even remember that. So, what do you feel like on most days? What are some feelings that you have during the day? I don't really have many feelings. Sometimes I miss my parents when I go to school. Yeah. And I really miss them. Do you have any other feelings? Like happy, sad, stressed? Happy at school. You feel happy? Uh huh. What makes you happy? Because my friends are there for the last year. Oh, okay. Are there any other feelings you have? Because I know I have so many feelings throughout the day. Sometimes I feel angry, sometimes I feel happy, sometimes I feel like I have so much to do. What about you? That's really it. That's really it? Yeah, that's really it. Alright, and last question. Does anything make you feel stressed? Do you know what stressed means? Yeah. Does anything make you feel stressed? Sometimes me and my friends go like, oh I'm not your friend anymore and then I feel a little bit sad. Oh, I see. Well, thanks for answering some of those questions. That really helps a lot. Uh huh. Alright, now we'll keep going. Some things I love about this interview with Brooklyn is how honest she is. I thought Brooklyn's answers would be super, super happy in hearing that a lot of her feelings come from stress, perhaps missing her parents. She also talks about having stress between, like, friends, saying they don't want to be friends with her anymore and then being very hot and cold, wanting to be her friend the next day. It just makes you realize that there are also some stressful events that happen in kid's lives that are very stressful to them, but ultimately what we take away from our childhood can be a lot of the happiest memories. Some of Brooklyn's favorite memories she describes are times she was around four years old when she would wake up in the morning and get whipped cream in her mouth. I love, love, love hearing this from Brooklyn because it makes me know that she's going to have a lot of positive memories when she's older, and she's probably going to look upon them very fondly like I do. Having the opportunity to interview my sister, do some research, really helped me learn all about myself, the importance of my childhood, but also why my childhood is important to me today, which is I'm just very stressed in life, so maybe I need to take more time to relax, but there's nothing wrong with looking back at memories fondly, so I've had such a great experience doing some research about this and learning more about my little sister. Thank you for tuning in, and I hope that my research can help you think about your childhood a little more fondly, too.