Dear Digital Diary

Dear Digital Diary,

I’m twenty-two but that doesn’t mean I can’t have childlike fun.

In early 2025, it snowed in Savannah, GA. The southern city hadn’t seen that amount of snow since the eighties, and for most, it was the first time they were seeing a glimmer of the winter wonderland that I’d grown up with. That meant that everyone was outside, making snowmen, sledding in laundry baskets, and skating through the icy roads that weren’t salted and didn’t see any vehicles for a week. It felt like recess in elementary school. A short break with a touch of imagination.

This past week I attended a WinterFest in my boyfriend’s hometown. It was an adults-only event and we took turns with fifty other 21+ year olds, watching each other as we plummeted down a tall hill of snow via tube or plastic sled. I hadn’t taken a sled on top of compacted snow in a good five years. But there I was, with all these other humans who held permanent smile-lines on their faces from the aging, acting as though we were children, cheering as we sped down the hill and gasping when one of us wiped out. 

And as I watched a grown man in his fifties tumble off the red plastic sled with a smile, I wondered why it was an event to sled. We paid ten dollars to be there, which was worth it, but it made me think about how it was just this one night, this one moment, in which we could all tap back into what we did as children. And how happy I was, and how happy everyone seemed. 

It got me thinking about what else I used to do in childhood that I either don’t do as frequently or have forgotten completely. It’s like I grew older and felt I had to adhere to maturity and what it meant to be an adult. In that process, I felt as though some things that used to make me happy weren’t mature enough to keep, and therefore, I left them in that era of my life. But sometimes, it’s as simple as sledding during winter. There’s no harm in that. It is pure joy. 

So I began to write down things that once gave me joy that I hope to experience sometime in the near future, because I’m only growing older. Here is that compiled list:

• Sledding on a little-kid sled
• Rolling down a green-grass hill in summertime
• Painting my nails with sparkly nail polish
• Putting stickers on notebooks and waterbottles
• Eating a dessert for breakfast 
• Boogie boarding 
• Reading picture books
• Dancing in the kitchen
• Becoming obsessed with a movie or book fandom
• Wearing bold and bright colors
• Watching Saturday morning cartoons 
• Making and eating buttered noodles
• Crafting from a how-to book
• Receiving magazines in the mail
• Sunset chasing 
• Going to an animal shelter and petting the animals
• Riding a bike for leisure not exercise
• Playing tag (bonus points if it’s contagious tag)
• Buying pajamas with characters on it

Now this is just the compiled list that I thought of between last Friday and today. I’m sure I could fill this list so it covers several pages, but I will say, this short list alone makes me deeply nostalgic. I had so much fun in my childhood. But why did that have to end? 

And did it ever? After all, only a few nights ago did I find myself flying down a snowy hill on a plastic sled, laughing like I was nine again.