WE’VE GOT THAT LIVING FEELING!

Comic character Charlie Brown often says “Good grief !” He has a point: grief can be good. This form of reverse psychology worked for me.

I was depressed and worried at the appalling state of my home’s ceiling during recent heavy rains. One section leaks so badly that the plastic bath I pushed beneath it overflowed with rain water within a few days. My Sassa pension doesn’t stretch to insurance or repairs.

At this time two acquaintances died. The realisation that both were younger than me acted like mental acupuncture. Never mind the flooded bathroom. The point is I’m not yet pushing up daisies.

Much as I miss my late friends, it feels good to step outside and admire the first daisies of spring.

GRATEFUL, EMAIL

Each time I think of my younger self, I experience a sort of nostalgia and a little longing for those times when my biggest worry was whether my mom would be making something delicious for dinner.

Now that I’m 17 I look back at the memories of playing Xbox games with my older brother, the scent of chlorine stuck in my hair from days in December, chocolate-mint ice cream, memorable 2010s music, and Disney channel shows, and I see that life as a young child was so beautiful.

I’ve come to realise my growth and the way my perception of people and the things around me has changed. As a child I used to think everyone was kind and perfect and that life was so simple. But now that I’m older I’ve learned that people are flawed, including me, and that life has complicated labyrinths and many lessons. And along with these realisations, I see that life is still beautiful.

Growing up is all kinds of things: strange, messy, sad, nostalgic, happy, and aggravating but I’d like to add one more, exciting! And I want to grasp every moment of it.

JANA BLIGNAULT, EMAIL