Actually, I knew. We were immature and playing for longer than other kids but there was a feeling the last time. I can picture it now, running around in the dark giggling and as our Make Believe characters. It was harder to assume our roles that time. We promised to play again at the next sleepover but somehow, I knew. There was a crisp winter feeling of finality and I felt that we were leaving the world of pretend behind. The next time we hung out we did other things that were fun. Dance to Whitney Houston, read books, sneak into their mom’s room to try on all of her random hats, general pre-teen shenanigans.

I think we knew we were behind. At least I was aware of it. For a while we didn’t care but the horrors of puberty come for us all I suppose.

Nah I fuckin knew it because that time was when they really started to bully me and I started avoiding everyone

This is both sad from the perspective that it was the last time and nice from the perspective that during that last time, I wasn’t bogged down with that knowledge and was able to enjoy it for what it was at the time.

That’s true, we tend to do our playing inside these days. I still hang out with one of my friends from childhood though, so not so sad!

I still engage in pretend play with friends in my 30s.

There’s a rulebook and dice now, but same concept of fantasizing and making up stories.

We even do it outside in the summer

At some point you do everything for the last time and most of the time you don’t know.

Nah, we all knew it was the last time because someone got a car.

I still do, but it’s different friends and we have to create our own limits. Mom said we had to be in when it got dark (I was in the country, no street lights to come on). Now I say when I come in.

I remember the last time my entire group of childhood friends all went out in the woods and did dumb shit. We weren’t technically old enough to drive, but two of us had hardship licenses and did it anyway. We all got together, paid a guy to buy us some cheap liquor, someone came up with some ditch weed, and someone else brought a guitar.

It was just a bunch of dudes in the woods being dumb and laughing together. The next week two of them (brothers) moved. Not long after that another was diagnosed with cancer. Another went to jail for being a moron and has been in and out ever since then. One lost interest in being our friend.

So we were down to me and one other guy. And we just hung out and played video games, occasionally hanging out with our friend who had cancer when he was feeling up to it.

We don’t talk anymore, really. The one with cancer and I still have a phone call once a year or so. He’s tired so it only lasts 15 minutes before he has to nap. The one I hung out with after everyone else died a few years ago in a wreck. The one who is in and out of jail is still doing the same shit. The one who lost interest went into the military and disappeared.

I consider that the last day of my childhood and still think about it once in a while.

It is shocking how many events were one time. Family reunions which seemed frequent were actually rare. Family trips, parties, playdates, all took a lot of effort to plan and many were done exactly once.

fortunately i never had any friends so i have successfully avoided this sad thing

Nope. I’m 34 and my best friend and I still go backpacking a few times a year.

This idea is directly related to The Last Time Meditation https://dynamic.wakingup.com/course/8B7443

I have a theory about this. About why our childhood was amazing. It’s because we never had something back then to look back on and feel sad about. We lived in the moment. We had our entire life ahead of us.

It seems like it is inevitable that we develop nostalgia and feel bad about missed adventures because we often look in the rear view mirror when we are grown up. But this raises interesting questions: are our brains; reaching the end of their growth spurt, start reusing existing structures and thus we can only live by comparison to our childhood? Is it possible that if we figure out how to allow the brain to continue creating new neurons we can feel as excited as children all our lives ?

I still play outside smdh

Jesus christ