Childhood

Nothing really matters if you really think about it as life is transient. What really matters is how to be present at every moment. That is easier said than done. Often there are unresolved issues that might have stemmed from our childhood days. Years ago at one French conversation class that I attended one evening, we were asked to talk about our childhood memories. I enjoyed the class even though I had a lot of trouble formulating my thoughts let alone in French at the end of a work day. Maybe I could blame the polluted air that did not help me think clearly, the thing is I could well improve my concentration and I needed to be focused. During the class it  was very enlightening to hear the other students share their stories. The teacher was in her thirties while amongst the students, two were middle-aged women and one was a teenage boy. Before I left my office, I had prepared hastily a little essay about an incident from my childhood days. When it was my turn to tell my story, I could not articulate the anecdote without referring to my notes. During the class, we talked about what triggered off scenes from our childhood and youthful days, whether it is a song, a smell or a scene etc. At  the end of the class, the teacher asked if we agreed with the statement “ Nos souvenirs d’enfance nous dissent qui nous sommes”. I cannot deny that our memories are an integral part of us and whatever we have experienced in our younger days make us who we are today. I have to agree that our childhood memories do tell us who we are and on reflection, our formative years could have probably been our early years and of course how we remember them. In the novel ‘ Kafka on the shore’ written by Haruki Murakami, the fifteen year old’s life took a turn when his mother abandoned him at a very young age. In real life, some people grew up fast as  their rose coloured lenses cracked at a young age due to their childhood experiences.