I was in a dumbass seminar for work recently where we were supposed to be, like, self-actualizing and talking about our personality types. There was an activity where we were supposed to graph how we had felt at different stages in our lives, and I was fucking shocked when I looked around and realized that almost everyone else had felt happiest, freest, etc as a child and had just progressively declined from there.

Like, I had a perfectly decent middle-class child and I still spent all day every day feeling like I was just waiting to be told what to do next. An hour sitting still in class felt like an eternity of torture, whereas most days now I look up from my desk and go "how is it already 3pm?" I make myself dinner that isn't meatloaf and put on clothes that I actually like instead of itchy hand-me-downs and when I'm done with work I drive myself home in a car where I control the radio and if I feel like stopping to grab a snack or check out that new shop on the way I just can. I wouldn't go back for all the money in the world.