Childhood

When reading the book for class, I find myself thinking of my childhood and comparing it to the way kids play now. When I was a kid, I would play outside all the time, whether it was outside on our swing set or across the street at the park, or just hanging out somewhere in the neighborhood, I was outside. On the weekends my dad would take my brother, my sister, and me on little adventures in the woods across the street and we would explore the wilderness and just listen to the animals and try to find dear. We also would try and take trips to different state parks in Illinois, and surrounding states. One big place we would go was Starved Rock, which is gorgeous and it's so relaxing and peaceful there, it's out in the middle of nowhere, no big cities or 8 lane highways nearby. We also went to my aunt and uncle's log cabin a lot, which was so fun. We would just explore the area, go hiking in the woods, or go swimming in the lake. Now, kids are too busy sitting inside on their computers or playing video games to even acknowledge the outdoors. Computers were new to us, and there wasn't as many video game systems around back then. Life seemed simpler, hanging out outside, playing kick the can and ghost in the graveyard, catching fireflies in the summer time. I feel like our generation was the last generation that enjoyed the outdoors and being in nature, there are still some kids who surprise you today, who want to be outside and go on hikes and what not, but most of them seem perfectly content sitting on their couch playing their PS3. I never really thought about the problem Louv talks about in Last Child in the Woods. I notice the differences between my parent's childhood and mine, and now mine and my neighbors, but it never really hit me until I was reading this book and seeing all the differences and changes that have taken place across the country in the last 50 or so years. Nature is shrinking to make room for us, and we are losing green space, places for kids to just hangout. Plus, the world doesn't seem as safe anymore, so parents don't let their kids go too far from the house without fearing something terrible is going to happen to them. A lot has changed, and I fear that it's going to keep changing and our kids will have even less nature to explore than we did.