The End of Childhood

I doubt anybody reading this would consider his or herself a child. Frankly, most of us have rejected the notion that we were still kids since the fifth grade. But I'd bet money that, for many of my fellow STACies, the fact that we've lost touch with our younger selves isn't quite real yet. I'm saying this because it only just dawned on me now.

While rooting through my little brother's closet in search for a tie I'd lost (side note: my bedroom is the attic of my house, and I don't have my own closet), I found a little beanbag turtle. I recognized it right away - it was my favorite toy for the first six years of my life. I'm not kidding - if you ever break into my house and look through my family's photo albums (which would say a lot about who you are as a person), you would see this turtle in at least three-quarters of the pictures of me. I recognized it right away, all right - but it's been at least six or seven years since the toy has so much as crossed my mind, and I can't even remember it's name. And that hit a bit closer to home than I would have thought. I mean, I haven't seen the thing in almost a decade. Third-grade Brian probably hid it under the dresser in what was, at the time, his/my closet so that his/my mother wouldn't be able to donate it to charity. (Third-grade Brian was a lot more sentimental than the current version is.) And a combination of time and a lack of interest in photo albums drove the turtle from my memory. And here I am, nine years later, unable to remember the name of a toy that took part in some of my earliest memories. And I'm getting a little choked up right now. (It's not just because of this - I'm doing some pretty depressing scriptwriting right now.) I guess this is it - I'm officially not a kid any more. 

So here's my theory: at some point, after an adolescent starts to deny that they are a child, they cease to be a child without truly realizing it. And at some point, a factor will arise - maybe an old TV show you catch a glimpse of while flipping channels, maybe a picture book your parents are finally donating, or maybe an old toy you haven't thought about in years - that makes the adolescent realize that, the last time they told a parent that they weren't a child anymore, they were actually right. 

Now, if you'll excuse me, I need to scour the Internet in search of clues as to what this turtle's name might be.