Fall Fling With My Inner Child

By Beth Gulley

All the fun Fall Festivals and outdoor activities this time of year remind me that my physical age and my mental age don’t match. My birth certificate says I am 36, but I still feel a sense of wonder, innocence and joy in silly everyday things like I did when I was 4.

I began the weekend trying to only give in to my inner 4 year old a little bit. Friday night my family went to a picnic, and I got a press-on tattoo, won a coke in the ring toss, had my photo taken with Dorothy, the Cowardly Lion, the Tin Man and the Scarecrow, and watched enviously as my 9- year-old son rolled down a giant hill.

By Saturday afternoon, I could barely restrain myself from purchasing fairy wings in the Halloween section at Walmart. But later that night at the YMCA fundraiser I didn’t let my physical age hold me back from getting my face painted, winning the cake walk and hooking all three of my hula hoops around caution cones (and I nabbed my prizes too).

While being stuck at age 4 causes me just a little embarrassment sometimes because I really want to get my own balloon animal or swing really high in the park and old people aren’t supposed to do that, I’m glad I didn’t get stuck on age 13 when most of us feel awkward or age 30 when I was worried about bills and potty training my son. I’m glad it doesn’t take much for me to have a good time. I noticed about 10 different dads playing dodge ball at the YMCA fundraiser who looked like finding their inner 6 year old wasn’t hard for them, either. Even my husband tapped in to his inner child and took a sucker after completing the corn maze at the Powell Pumpkin Patch Sunday afternoon.

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Posted by admin on Sep 29 2010. Filed under Beth Gulley, Opinion. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0. You can leave a response or trackback to this entry