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The unbearable anticipation of waiting to open your presents on Christmas day. That overwhelming sense of freedom as the last bell of the school year rings and you've got your whole summer ahead of you. The smell of funnel cake and groan of old amusement rides at the local fair. The thrill of watching a train go through the neighborhood and counting how many cars it's pulling. The excitement at the prospect of snow and the sheer joy of watching it fall knowing you'll be playing in it soon. These are the memories of childhood that are immediately conjured for many people. What isn't there to miss about it?

Childhood experiences are what made us the men and women we are today. They taught us how to live in the real world. We learned right from wrong. When to defend ourselves and when to run. We learned to be despots, dictators, heroes, villains and all manner of idealistic role models through the time we invested in play and imagination.
Sometimes our minds grew as fast as our bodies, sometimes our bodies won out; making for often awkward situations.
We were ridiculed, laughed at and tormented. Other times we were on the other side of the equation. We learned what it mean to play fair, how to cheat and why we play by the rules. We learned how to be ourselves in childhood. That is something worth missing.

Today we look back at all the things we did and all the things we didn't do. Some of us take time to think of how things would be had we done them differently. Others reflect on how lucky they are for doing the things they did. Some are thankful they didn't do some things they thought were good ideas at the time but for some reason decided discretion was the better part of valor. Our childhood was a time of development, learning and evolution. We owe more to our childhoods than most people care to give it credit for. To miss it is to pay it homage and to remember it. That is something that should be missed.

Some of us are fortunate enough to get a second change to relive our childhood through our children.
The legacy of our history, our children are a continuance of our future. We have an obligation to them that demands we teach them about our past so that they may learn from our lessons and not have to make some of the same mistakes that we did at their age. What more can a parent hope for than to nurture their children in ways they themselves did not have such an advantage. Passing that torch on to our children is a reflect on our own childhood.
That is something that needs to be missed.

Learn more about this author, Joseph Whalen.
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