"I mean, you're almost sixteen! You need to learn how to be a kid again," MeMe told me while on a spontaneous trip to the park a few days ago. "I want to," I responded, "but I don't even know where to start. It's been so long since I've properly felt like a kid." Without hesitation, she said, "Kids laugh and play all day and aren't afraid of balancing on the balance bars or pretending the ditch is a pot of lava. Kids roll down a hill and play in the dirt and run around the grass playing airplane. And being a kid also means laughing really hard. I laugh hard all the time, you know. I think you need some more laughter in your life." So that's what we did. In the setting sun of a early autumn day, I balanced on a low metal fence, played airplane until my chest heaved from lack of breath, and climbed a tree. I remembered what it felt like to be a kid again.Today, I turn sixteen. The number is foreign on my tongue, though at the same time, I feel as if this year has been a long time coming. But now that I'm at this "milestone" age, I regret the times I spent in my younger years being in such a hurry to grow up. I thought grown ups got to do all the cool things and had it all figured out...but now that I'm fast approaching adult-ism, I'm realizing that while it's exciting and new, it's not all that fun. I am still excited (and okay, a little bit or a lot scared too) for what sixteen will bring and the secrets it holds, but the other day, when I was looking at insurance rates, car shopping, researching tax information, and doing business development, I felt so brutally grown up...and I didn't feel ready in the slightest. The next day, though, I was at the park climbing trees and playing tag and acting like a kid in every way. It was wonderful. And no matter how old or grown up someone might feel, I think it's so important to cherish that little bit of kid inside, to know how to have fun using only your imagination and the outdoors. Who knew that my eight year old sister had so much wisdom packed into her tiny body?
I guess I'll stop being all philosophical now and get right to it:
Hi, I'm Carlotta. I'm sixteen today. And I'm learning how to be a kid again.
this is so wonderful. i love you. and MeMe.
ReplyDeleteand happy birthday. :)
I love this!!! so cute and spontaneous! Happy birthday to you! :)
ReplyDeleteThis is so sweet! Happy birthday, Carlotta! :)
ReplyDeleteSuch a good reminder to just laugh and play and enjoy being a kid..hope you have a beautiful birthday Carlotta...
ReplyDeleteI love what your sister said. I’m almost sixteen(5 days away), and I’m almost afraid to turn sixteen, you know? I look back at all the moments of wishing to be older, when I should’ve been enjoying being a kid. But hey, I don’t care, I’ll still watch kid shows, and sing the abc’s at the top of my lungs even when I’m one hundred years old. It’s called enjoying life. :)
ReplyDeleteGosh I feel lame, I forgot to wish you a happy birthday! Happy birthday, hope your day is lovely!
ReplyDeleteso wonderful, so good. the other day, I ran around the backyard in pitch darkness with all the neighbors, playing ghost in the graveyard and hide and go seek (which I dominated, just so you know) and it was nice to just be a kid again. to laugh and not worry and run under the stars in the night. happy birthday love. xoxo
ReplyDeleteAw, happy birthday doll.16 is such an amazing age and milestone. I hope you have the most wonderful year. Much love.
ReplyDeleteThis is such a great post Carlotta. (: Happy birthday!
ReplyDeleteHappy birthday Carlotta :) I've always thought you sounded very mature and so eloquent for your age but I'll admit that sometimes I've worried that you were in too much of a hurry to grow up. From a 21 year old who has just graduated from college - enjoy your youth and have some fun while you don't have too many responsibilities!
ReplyDeleteHappy Birthday Carlotta! I love this post so much. :) I think no matter how old a person gets there will always be a part of them that's still a little kid. Good luck on car shopping, I went through that a couple months ago and I understand the headaches it can cause. :) Hope you have an amazing 16th year!
ReplyDeletehappy birthday sweetie!
ReplyDeletejust remember, we all have to grow old, but we don't all have to grow up ;)
Happy Birthday, Carlotta! This post was fantastic, and it's exactly what I've been thinking about lately. :)
ReplyDeleteamazing post, as usual. sixteen is an awesome age to be, though i'm pretty sure eighteen is my favorite so far. (and though i already said it on facebook, one can never have too many happy birthday wishes - happiest of happy birthdays!) xo
ReplyDeleteHappy Birthday Carlotta! Love this, I have the same milestone coming up soon and as excited as I am to see what it has in store for me, how I will grow and what adventures I will have, I still have way too much fun running around with the little kiddos after church chasing them around (and around and around) the building and playing jump rope and letting them paint my face to grow up. And can I just say? Meme is so wise.
ReplyDeleteWhat a wise little sis you have indeed. That's so sweet... and she's so right! Happy Birthday, Carlotta. xo
ReplyDeleteLove this post :) This really shows how we should cherish every moment we have.
ReplyDeleteHappy belated 16th Birthday!! I hope it was wonderful :)
-Allison
"Kids laugh and play all day and aren't afraid of balancing on the balance bars or pretending the ditch is a pot of lava. Kids roll down a hill and play in the dirt and run around the grass playing airplane. And being a kid also means laughing really hard. I laugh hard all the time, you know. I think you need some more laughter in your life." Jeeze, MeMe, she's so wise and well-spoken for her age!
ReplyDeleteAnd of course, of course, of course, HAPPY BIRTHDAY! :)
Happy birthday! I hope you always balance your life between childhood and adulthood! No one is ever too old to be a child!
ReplyDeletemuch love!
Happy birthday!!! This is such a great little post. You are beautiful, and I hope you are having an awesome day. :)
ReplyDeletejoannadell.blogspot.com
happy birthday, girl. so happy for you!
ReplyDeleteonce again - happy birthday, wonderful.
ReplyDeletebeing a kid is the best. yesterday i looked at post secondary school options in the morning, and found myself swinging at the park with chloe and rayvn in the afternoon. it's nice to have younger sister(s) to help us stay young at heart, yes? especially that meme, she's chalk full of young wisdom.
love you.
Happy birthday, beautiful girl! We all need to be a kid once in a while. In my mind, we never truly lose our 'kid' side.
ReplyDeletelovely dear. (: cherish those moments. sixteen was a hard year for me, but I grew in so many ways. happy sweet sixteen!
ReplyDeleteLittle siblings always know the right thing to say. :) Happy Birthday, dear! Cheers to playing on the monkey bars as a teenager. :D
ReplyDeleteHave a lovely birthday, Carlotta!
ReplyDeleteHappy Birthday! I hope your day is filled with much love, joy and happiness and maybe a little kidish ;) On the 20th i turned 16 and its weird i feel so much older but at the same time i feel the same. Hope your year is wonderful!!! Cheers to being 16!
ReplyDeleteIn Christ
Hosanna
I still am a kid at heart.. I want to keep that part of me alive.
ReplyDeleteps-- happy haaappy birthday!!
Happy Birthday.....oh,to be a kid again,I'ld love to go back,its so much fun isn' it. So now I'm just an oversized kid. ;)
ReplyDeleteHappy Birthday, Carlotta! I hope this year is filled with adventure, love, and so much happiness that you don't know what to do with it!
ReplyDeleteI loved this post. I'm 25, so I obviously have been where you are. The whole growing up business isn't nearly as daunting as it can seem. You are already so wise--you will have your moments where things are overwhelming (as we all do), but your character doesn't have to age entirely. I still try to embrace the imaginative, adventurous part of me, and I'm able to. Even though I still miss those "in awe" moments that I had as a kid (Christmas, birthdays), I also have found things that absolutely make me come alive and bring out the young, childlike character that is still there. I guess it also helps that I don't see 25 as old.
Anyway, I hope this birthday is one of your best yet. Everything will work out as it should as far as insurance, car, etc. My (unsolicited) advice would be to take your time with the car. I prayed for months before I found one, and when I finally found one, the timing/finances was so perfectly arranged that it could only have been God who arranged it. I really feel that I got the best deal with patience. So good luck to you in finding one and in planning. I'm sure you'll be fabulous.
Sorry for the long winded comment!
this is perfect. and happy birthday!
ReplyDeleteHappy sweet sixteen, Carlotta! And amen to cherishing that piece of child in you... it's special.
ReplyDelete-Gabby
Happy birthday! It's so easy to get caught up in looking good, liking the 'in' things, thinking it's so incredibly cool to walk around like you've seen it all, and while adulthood probably has many amazing factors, I, at fourteen, enjoy a mixture of dreaming of room decor, clothes, (crying with) laughter, photography, reading children + teenager books and cuddling with teddybears. I just don't rush things (at least I try not to). Even if I'm the only one left enjoying dolls or any such thing, so be it. I need some fun too. ;)
ReplyDeleteAnna x
Happy Birthday Carlotta! Sixteen? Wow. I want to be sixteen, but I know, when i turn sixteen, i'll want to be eleven again!
ReplyDeleteHappy Birthday, Carlotta!!! This post is beautiful, and so are you. Your little sister is the sweetest. I love what she said to you. It's so true. :)
ReplyDeleteI hope your sixteenth year is just amazing full of much laughter and exciting opportunities to do the things you love.
Blessings!
~Madi
happy birthday to the both of us! :]
ReplyDeletexx.
k
:D
ReplyDeletehappy birthday, carlotta! :D
ReplyDeletehappy birthday, carlotta! :D
ReplyDeletehappy birthday, sweet girl! you're such an inspiration! xx's
ReplyDeleteHappy Birthday, Carlotta! I empathize with you kinda feeling stressed about entering "adulthood." When I hit sixteen this summer, I was like, "Woooo, sixteen!--wait, there are responsibilties that come with this?!"
ReplyDeletelovely, and a very happy birthday to you! (a little late)
ReplyDeleteI love this. so.so.so much.
xoxo,
Rachel Nicole @ Summer Breeze
rachyracheshobbycorner.blogspot.com
happy happy 16th, carlotta! this post is so lovely.
ReplyDeleteshoot girl, you are mature beyond your years! when i was 16 all i cared about was soccer and my boyfriend lou. you astound me! let loose while you can! trust me, now is the time haha.
ReplyDeleteHappy birthday, Carlotta.
ReplyDeleteAnd - this is so poignant and a lot of it is very true for me too. Lovely post.
hapy birthday, carlotta! learning to be a kid again is something every adult/teen needs to learn and keep.
ReplyDeletehappy birthday and many happy returns of the day! I will be sixteen in 6 months, so this is a good post for me to remember for when that comes. :) Also, well said, MeMe. You're so right and it's something everyone needs to remember, no matter how old they are.
ReplyDeleteHAPPY BIRTHDAY!!! I love this post! You write so beautifully!!
ReplyDeleteI hope you know you have the same BD as Bilbo and Frodo Baggins! ;) Mine's only in 4 days, and I won't be '16 going on 17' anymore. Bittersweet...but 17 is exciting.
ReplyDeleteYour lovely thoughts reminded of two favorite quotes. May I share?
"The boy should enclose and keep, as his life, the old child at the heart of him, and never let it go. He must still, to be a right man, be his mother's darling, and more, his father's pride, and more. The child is not meant to die, but to be forever fresh born." ~George Macdonald, 'The Princess and Curdie'
"My heart leaps up when I behold
A rainbow in the sky.
So was it when my life began;
So is it now I am a man;
So be it when I grow old,
Or let me die!
The Child is father of the Man;
And I could wish my days to be
Bound each to each by natural piety."
~Wordsworth
Happy Belated Birthday! May you always be the proverbial wide eyed adventurous youth! Staying always young at heart is so much more becoming, you know.
ReplyDeleteHappy birthday. It's getting close to my fifteenth, and it feels like a big deal, and my brother just turned twenty. Too much to handle.
ReplyDeletehappy birthday, love. 16 is sure to be an exciting age; i hope your year is wonderful! xx
ReplyDeletehappy birthday lady! being 16 is the best, but acting like a child is still something so wonderful.
ReplyDeleteHappy Birthday!
ReplyDeleteHappy Birthday Carlotta. Feel alive; you're inner kid is being freed.
ReplyDeleteHappy birthday, Carlotta! These pictures are absolutely gorgeous. Thank you for sharing those words. Sometimes I feel like I'm doing all these "grown up things"...things kids wouldn't do...things that don't necessarily matter and its not all that exciting. I think we just forget how to act like kids...all of us do. Thanks for helping me to remember.
ReplyDeleteahhh carlotta!! happy birthday girl:) I have little siblings too, and sometimes, it's fun to stop being "so grown up" and just run around, climb trees, and play pretend with them. ♥
ReplyDeleteHappy belated birthday. I know you'll enjoy being sixteen to the fullest. :-) And YES, be a kid!!! In a few years it'll be all gone!
ReplyDeleteAt first, happy birthday to you. I agree with you that when we grow up, we need to leanr to be kids again.
ReplyDeleteoh my word. thanks for sharing meme's word of wisdom! seriously :)
ReplyDeletehappy belated birthday! lots of hugs :)
here's to this upcoming year of being sixteen, carlotta. this is your year. laugh often and love much and always remember that life is good no matter what. x
ReplyDeleteHow exciting! I've been sixteen for a few months now, and I'm loving it. It's so fun reaching this age. Also, I love your photography so much. You are so talented! And you are so pretty. Hope you had a wonderful birthday! xo
ReplyDeleteThis makes me really nostalgic about being a little kid. Happy belated birthday Carlotta! :)
ReplyDeletewow. I am in shock. I visit your blog occasionally and I always thought you were in your late teens or twenty-something!! And that is interesting because here I am actually a year older than you...whoa...!! Wishing you the happiest year of your life yet!! :D
ReplyDeletehappy birthday, Carlotta!
ReplyDeletelots of love,
~Jess~