What were you like when you were a child? 

Were you shy? Were you quiet? Were you hyper? Were you happy? Were you sad? Were you playful?

What did you enjoy doing when you were a child?

Did you enjoy building cities out of lego? Playing with Hot Wheels cars? Writing books? Drawing pictures? Acting in a play? Building playhouses? Playing with animals? Creating science projects? Climbing trees? Reading books? Taking your bike out for adventures?

I just came back from a nostalgia filled weekend in Portland, Oregon, and it was amazing. I’ve heard that the city was like going back to the 90s, and is actually kind of was. In the best way. It wasn’t pretentious, people wore what was comfortable. Grunge was still a thing. I didn’t see a lot of big corporate shops, as most of the shops were locally owned businesses. Everyone was friendly. There were tons of shops that were nostalgia themed too, such as stores dedicated to toys front he 60s/70s/80s and so on. We had dinner at McMenamins Kennedy School, which is an old school built in 1916 which was converted into a really magical and incredible space with themed bars and cigar rooms, restaurants, and hotel rooms. Also, when I visited Powell’s Books, the world’s largest independent new and used book store, I somehow ended up in the section on journals made for grandparents to record their memories as a keepsake for their grandchildren.

I ended up buying a book called, “A First for Everything Journal”, which is a journal filled with all sorts of questions about your first everythings that you fill out. It’s a major trip down memory lane. It really got me thinking about who I was as a child. Check it out.

I was always a creative kid. I was always writing books, books and more books, mostly activity books about science, space, ghosts, and the earth/nature. But it really got me thinking that somewhere along the way, I lost who this little girl was. The little girl who didn’t care what people thought, who just created things because she loved to. I came across this video, which talks about when we were children, we functioned from the inside-out (our creativity came from within and was expressed outwardly), but as we grew up and needed to fit in and got caught up in consumerism, we became more outside-in oriented, and lost who we were.

I want to get back to who I was. 

Today I visited my old elementary school, and sat in the field on the baseball bench. I took in the familiar scene that was lost so long ago, smelled the old smells, and remembered the old memories. This is my mission, and time to delve back into who I was long ago. I already have goals of writing books, but this really hit home. I do want to write books. And not necessarily novels, or anything big, but simple books to inspire people of all ages.

What were you like when you were a child?