Childhood means something different to each generation. I usually think of these periods as 10-15 years. I was born in the middle of 1990 and to me, thinking of childhood brings back memories of riding my bike all over my small town, playing football in a friend's front yard, and making my own fun in general.

In the late 90s and early 2000s, it was a near-mythical time where video games weren't yet an addiction, cell phones were still mostly for adults, and social media just...was not a thing, aside from AOL instant messenger and Yahoo chat rooms. Looking back, it seemed like a simpler time. There wasn't much to worry about. There never was, as a kid.

The nostalgia I have for this era almost makes me disappointed that kids growing up currently won't have these experiences. Experiences like searching for your friends on a warm summer vacation day. Riding around the various blocks, looking for a pile of bicycles in a front yard and knowing that meant exactly which friends were inside the house.

Kids today will never know the nervousness or embarrassment of calling a friend's house and having to ask one of their relatives if they were available to play or talk. Or the anxiety of calling your crush and getting their parent on the line. In an age where children have their own smartphone, they can talk to exactly who they want to on the first try. They don't need to knock blindly on someone's door to see if they're ready to go. There's no need to look around the neighborhood to find your friends. With Google, they don't even need to rack their brains to think of a fun game to play.

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Childhood means something different to those growing up currently, and I've realized that's just fine. With so much that's changed in nearly 30 years, not everyone's experiences will or should mirror my own. I don't understand what being a kid in today's world means to them, just as they couldn't understand the full impact of being one in my time. It would be an unfair comparison because they're apples and oranges at this stage.

Every once in a while I catch myself thinking, 'Kids these days,' but have to remind myself, I don't know why they do what they do because I don't have those shared experiences to fully understand. Just because I don't understand, doesn't automatically make it bad, I just think back to days gone by and smile. All I can really say is that I enjoyed growing up and that's all that should really matter, to me.