Simple, Happiness.

When I was younger, all I wanted was to be old.  I would look at older girls and think you know I wanna look like them, with their dresses, heels, and makeup, as I pranced around my room in mom's heels and old eighties shades of lipstick.  No lie, I looked like the Joker. Plus it was probably all over my face which contributed to the insane clown child look.  A few years later, my mom let me buy a small tube of lipstick for myself.  It was my lucky day, and as I ran around CVS, basically convulsing with excitement at the rows and rows of colors, different reds and pinks, I knew I had made it, I was one of them.  Of course I chose the most hideous color, bubble gum pink, which I'm still convinced is not flattering on a single living person. Whether it was hideous or not, I was happy.  Because I was one of those girls, the girls who wore heels and makeup.  I was older.

But now, with everything that is going on in my world and the world around me, I sometimes long to be a kid.  Don't get me wrong, I love the fact that I can go to bars, vote, drive, work.  Hey, and I enjoy happy hour just as much as the next person.  And don't even get me started when it comes to mojitos/margaritas on the beach--I am one satisfied girl. Being 22, freshly graduated, I get it; I have the ability to do anything right now. But life as a kid was so simple.  I didn't understand stresses of bills, insurance, taxes (pssh I still don't understand how to file my own taxes).  I would look at my dad doing bills think, wow look at all those checks and paperwork, he is one important, rich man, I can't wait to do bills!  Oh how naive you were, young Corinne. Quoting a famous proverb (that I just made up), "With knowledge comes the understanding of both the good and the bad," and now I fully understand the awesome times and the not so awesome ones.

But just reminisce with me for a second: wasn't it the best when you played outside all day?  Like what did we do for 10 hours straight?  Honestly, like throw rocks at each other?  Sometimes I think of myself as a kid.  I created a music room and charged kids money to listen to music in a room, I know, crazy right?  But kids actually came and paid me. Already had that business sense I guess.  Those kids were so gullible, but hey so was I.  I used to visit my grandparents in Hollister, California (yes it's an actual place, and no it's nowhere close to the beach),  and that old house holds some of the best memories for me. I used to picture myself living there, all grown up and living in California--the best state there is, and though I don't know if I'm comfortable giving California all of that credit now, it did provide me with some fun times as a kid.  My brother and sister and I used to sit in the drive way of my grandparent's house, draw on the concrete with chalk or read old books we found in the shed out back (one time I found an old copy of Carrie, the cover scarred me for life). And we used to play wall ball (aka just throw the ball at me because I could neither catch nor throw, meaning I was usually the last one picked for games or sports and the first one out
- but that's another story).  Those little memories (besides being pelted with a ball) make me so happy; the simplicity and fun of being a kid.

Ah, but this is taking too many turns down memory lane, it's making me a little carsick.  Although sometimes, it is nice to think about those times when maybe you didn't worry as much, maybe you just enjoyed who was around you.  I like that about kids.  They're like the original Rastafarians, no worries, just a huge smile across their face, proud of the latest fort they built or music room they created.  Hey, maybe I just need to listen to more Bob Marley and relax.  Bob and the kids seem to know what's up, what the key to life is: Simple, happiness. (Cue Three Little Birds,  "Don't worry about a thing...")