My Life 10 Years Ago and Now
Wow, can you believe it's been an entire decade since I was just a little 5-year-old kid? It feels like just yesterday I was starting kindergarten. So much has changed in the last 10 years! Let me tell you all about how different my life is now compared to back then.
When I was 5 years old, my daily routine was pretty simple. I would wake up early for my mom to get me dressed and ready for preschool. I remember hating having to wear those embarrassing cartoon character outfits she would pick out for me. Maybe she thought they were cute, but I just thought they were babyish!
After getting dressed, I would have a quick breakfast. Back then my favorite was always Lucky Charms - I loved picking out all the marshmallow pieces and leaving the plain cereal bits behind. My mom would get so annoyed when I did that!
Then it was off to preschool on the little yellow bus. I was so excited the first few times I rode it, but it didn't take long for the novelty to wear off. I remember the bus rides were always hot, smelly, and bumpy. Not exactly a limo ride to school!
At preschool, the days seemed to last forever. We would spend what felt like hours just playing with building blocks, finger painting, and napping. I've got to admit, those midday nap times were pretty nice. These days, I can't even imagine getting a chance to nap during school!
When my mom picked me up in the afternoon, we would head home and I would have some free time before dinner. If the weather was nice, I loved going outside on my Little Tikes plastic car and driving around our small backyard pretending I was a racecar driver. That bright red car was my most prized possession back then!
For dinner, my diet consisted mostly of chicken nuggets, mac and cheese, and teddy bear shaped crackers. My parents had to basically beg me to eat any kind of vegetable. I distinctly remember gagging down mushy peas while holding my nose. Just thinking about that makes me want to vomit today!
After dinner, I always begged my parents to let me watch TV and play video games for hours before bed, but they strictly limited my screen time to just an hour or so. Of course, at the time I thought that was cruel and unfair. But now I realize they were just trying to look out for me.
Finally, it was bath time and then off to bed. I remember my mom would read me bedtime stories about dragons, princesses, and talking animals. As tired as I would get, I could never get enough of those stories and would constantly beg \"one more, pleeeease!\"
Once my head finally hit the pillow, my stuffed teddy bear \"Mr. Snuggles\" was sure to be cuddled up right next to me. That thing was my best friend and I went everywhere with it back in those days. I even tried to sneak it to school once before my parents caught me!
Man, those were the days - nothing to worry about besides hoping for extra recess time at school and looking forward to playdates with friends on the weekends. Life was just so simple and carefree as a little 5-year-old kid.
Flash forward 10 years, and my daily routine today as a 5th grader looks incredibly different. Long gone are the days of preschool nap times, finger painting, and bedtime stories about talking animals.
These days, my morning starts with the harsh sound of my alarm clock going off at 6 AM to get ready for school. I've become quite the pro at hitting that snooze button as many
times as I can get away with before my mom yells at me to get up.
Unlike the dress-up clothes from when I was little, my wardrobe now consists of the trendiest hoodies, t-shirts, and jeans. Forget the cartoon characters on my outfits - now it's all about sporting gear from my favorite sports teams and bands. I've got to look cool, you know?
After throwing on my outfit for the day, it's a race to the kitchen to try and capture one of the coveted breakfast burrito or Pop-Tart packages my mom lays out. Sometimes I'm successful, but most mornings it's just a granola bar sundae in the car on the way to school.
The school bus rides have gotten even worse over the years. Don't get me started on the rowdy middle schoolers who seem to get their kicks out of throwing things across the aisle and screaming at the top of their lungs. Those bus drivers really have their work cut out for them!
Once I mercifully arrive at school, my day is pretty much scheduled down to the minute with very few breaks in between classes. It's a ton of rushing from math class to English, to science, and then maybe I'll get a small break for snack time if I'm lucky.
The homework load in 5th grade is just insane. I'm in this constant cycle of hurriedly finishing last night's assignments during homeroom, rushing through my classwork for today, and then getting more piled on for tomorrow night. My backpack feels like it weighs 1000 pounds with all the binders, books, and papers I lug around daily.
By the time the final bell rings, I'm totally exhausted. But the day is still far from over...
Right after school, it's straight to basketball practice. I've been playing basketball since 3rd grade, and the intensity of the practices has gotten much more serious now that I'm one of the oldest kids on the team. Running drilling after drilling and completing grueling conditioning workouts has basically become my second job.
Finally, I get home around 6 PM and it's a mad dash to shovel down whatever food my mom has ready before I'm off to my next commitment. On Mondays and Wednesdays, it's an hour of math tutoring to help keep my grades up. Tuesdays are reserved for my weekly youth group meeting at church. Thursdays are for my computer coding class that my parents insist will be great for developing skills for the tech jobs of the future.
The weekends are pretty much my only time to relax, sleep in, and squeeze in as much recreational video game and TV time as possible before the chaos starts all over again. My parents still set pretty strict time limits on that \"just one more level, pleeeease!\"
Of course, any free moment I can find gets consumed by friends - chatting on FaceTime, sending hilarious memes and TikTok videos in our group text, or making plans to hang out at the trampoline park or catch a movie. Having a social life is pretty much a part-time job in itself these days.
While life as a 5th grader keeps me insanely busy and stressed, I do actually love being able to take on more
responsibility than I could have imagined 10 years ago as a little kid. In preschool, I could barely be trusted to tie my own shoes, let alone juggle difficult concepts in algebra or dissect a frog in biology class.
Looking back, those lazy days of napping, playing make-believe, and eating chicken nuggets for every meal do seem pretty awesome in a lot of ways. But at the same time, I'm really growing into my own person now and gaining more freedom and independence than I ever could have dreamed of at 5 years old.
Who knows what life will look like 10 years from now when I'm in high school or maybe even college? I'm sure I'll look back on my current 5th grade daily routine and laugh at how easy I had it compared to whatever life has in store for me at 20 years old. All I know is that one thing will never change - I'll make sure I still get to enjoy the little things in life, like a good cartoo...err, I mean a movie or video game here and there. Somethings really don't change all that much over a decade after all!
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