I know we can all flashback to a time where we were pure, we were innocent and we didn’t know any better but to be that. When did we lose our innocence? Have we lost it yet? When did we go from giving every person the benefit of doubt and believing in the good of a person to expecting the worst out of people and become incapable of trusting? When did playing outside all day with your friends suddenly not be enough?

Responsibility holds a different meaning for every entity of life, whether it a be a human or an animal. Every living being should hold on to some innocence, some barrier that protects them from the crevices of conflict, from the precipice of immorality. The older we get, the more innocence gets substituted by rationality. After enough time, the innocence becomes inconspicuous and we are left with a void untraceable and unnoticeable. We rationalize this very void by attributing it to a growing pain, an inevitable consequence of the rigors of life and the repercussions of maturity.

When did I inhibit my own ability to trust others? What has driven me, what drives us all to reevaluate the things we have done and the way we jurisdict our own decisions and actions? We have become hardened by life, incontrollably sculpted by our environment and experiences. We become the adult that we feared we would become when we were young: the adult that is responsible and has essentially become his/her parents. The world is no longer perfect to any of us and many of our heroes have either fallen or are no longer with us. We begin to reminisce on times more familiar; on more innocent times where we were free to wander aimlessly through life, where we were liberated from responsibility and were alotted the freedom to live a carefree life. Those times have long since withered away in the shadows of the past. Our innocence has been smoldered by the ash of past memories and experiences.

The beauty of a dream has been overshadowed by the security of financial assurance. When did we stop wanting to be a police officer, a firefighter, etc.? When did reality set in and subtly disintegrate our innocence?

Can we regain that innocence? What is certain is that it cannot be fabricated, it cannot be manufactured, engineered, or reproduced. Is there some way for us to rediscover that innocence? Doesn’t it always stay with us? Do we just repress it and push it further back into our consciouness? Does it remain with us, ready to be rediscovered and cultivated? Should we all approach our lives with a little more innocence, which in theory should make us more patient and more optimistc? Has my innocence been stolen? If so, when or at what particular moment did that happen? What life experience(s) caused that? Were there defining moments when my innocence slipped through the cracks of consciousness, when it crept into the abyss of my mind? Can I get it back? Does it even matter??