What did you used to love doing as a child?

And do you still do it now?

Photo by Stephen Andrews on Unsplash

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It’s funny how reading something can spark a strong memory or emotion.

I’m currently reading

Emma Gannon

’s A Year of Nothing (which is excellent btw) and in the first chapter of Summer | Autumn, one of the things Emma writes beautifully about is her child self and the things she used to enjoy.

This got me thinking about my child self. One thing immediately sprang to mind. Something I loved, loved, LOVED to do as a child:

Dancing.

And when I say dancing, I mean that as a child I used to dance with wild abandon.

With

Absolutely

No

Inhibitions

Whatsoever.

I danced a lot. Especially around the house, to the great irritation of my poor mother who decided the solution was to send me to dance lessons. I think the intention was to burn away some of her hyperactive daughter’s excess energy and also as a means of protecting her precious porcelain ornaments from my little flailing arms as I twirled endlessly around the lounge.

So, I took formal dance lessons from the ages of 4 to 16 which I loved so much and then…

I stopped.

As a teenager, I was incredibly self-conscious of my changing and growing body – large breasts, broad shoulders and back, thick thighs… and all of the judgement that came with having ‘the wrong body for dance’. I’d been told a number of times by other people: little fat me was never going to be a dancer, was I? I totally believed it. And so, dancing fell by the wayside. 

My studies took over.

All these years later I continue to adore watching and admiring dance, but my own dancing nowadays is much more subdued - what I class as very much ‘Auntie’ dancing.

And I embrace it. But….

It wasn’t until I considered the question of what I used to love doing as a child that I realised I hadn’t truly danced without any inhibitions for a long time.

Too long.

How did that happen?

I miss that little girl who danced with wild abandon and found freedom and joy and pleasure in the miracle of her body through it.

So, I ask you:

• What’s something you used to love doing as a child? And do you do it now?

• If not, could you / would you revisit it?