Thinking back to the days when being naked was OK

It’s already March 2013. I repeat, March of the year 2013, and it feels like it was still yesterday that I was roaming around my Brooklyn apartment with a big baby doll in my arms. At that point, my older sister was trying to wean me into wearing pants, and when I say wean, I mean that she would yell that I needed to put pants on. Pants? I had panties on, wasn’t that enough? Remember when that was acceptable? As a matter of fact, let’s rewind to when full on nudity was the norm ...

Full on nudity was only acceptable at ages three or younger. I hesitate to place a higher age because GMOs these days have little girls developing a whole lot earlier than even a few decades ago.  But I digress.

Anyways, the other day my sister sent me a medley of pictures of my three youngest nephews, Cirillo, Alejandra and Joselito, ages three, two and (almost) one years old respectively. Because of their ages, it is perfectly acceptable to have photos of all of them giggling and chilling in the bathtub with each other. My heart. Suddenly, it dawned on me that these little rascals are growing up fast.  Soon they will all shower separately, their little bodies will stretch and they will be all covered up. I’m no nudist.  I’m only saying that time is going by faster than the winds Baltimore throws our way some nights.

Sometimes I find myself, when I am back at home, flipping through old pictures and asking myself, “What happened?” This question refers to both how cute I was, and what was going on at the time the picture was taken. I don’t even remember what I did last week, let alone years ago, and that is terrifying. I mean, I wouldn’t want to have a condition that allowed me to remember every moment of my life, but it’s crazy how much we have all lived through. And yet, we don’t have the ability to remember the big or nice little moments at vividly to any degree.

I’m not even 20 and I find myself reminiscing every other day. The topics range from when sidekicks were the “it” phones,  when AIM away messages told your whole story, when name belts were everywhere and when homework wasn’t hard. Now it’s struggle city.

All I can say is try to do something noteworthy at least once a week, or even everyday, so that you won’t wake up a year from now and be like, “What have I been doing with my life?”