I am nearly twenty-five years old, which is absolutely terrifying.  I sense a quarter-life crisis rapidly approaching.  Aside from the existential paralysis that accompanies the age of 25, I can guess with a fair amount of certainty that I will no longer be considered a child.  That probably already happened, but if it hasn't, the age of 25 will surely put the last nail in the coffin. My childhood is a goner.

That sucks, because childhood comes with some pretty great perks.  For one, grown-ups have almost no expectations of children.  As long as they're not throwing themselves on the ground in public places, people are pretty impressed.  As an adult, if you so much as sigh at an inappropriate time, you are scolded.  Another perk of childhood is ignorance.  Don't get me wrong, I really love being a keeper and disseminater of knowledge, but it was even nicer when, as a child, I knew nothing and everything was a new and exciting learning experience.  Every contact with the world was filled with awe and wonder at the vastness and improbability of the universe.  As adults, we get careless in the mostly familiar world around us and forget to notice the unfamiliar things.  With that carelessness departs our awe and wonder.

While these two perks of childhood are pretty awesome, one by far surpasses them.  That is, as a child you can play without an excuse.  Children never have to have a reason to play, go wild, run around.  Adults have to have a purpose behind their play.  Adults have to have worked really hard, accomplished something, or be celebrating someone else, to feel that they deserve to play. As if play is exclusively reserved as a reward.

As a fledgling academic my life responsibilities are less than those of many adults, but certainly more than those of children.  As an academic I am expected to produce something everyday without the luxury of 9-5 time boundaries.  This means that at all times I feel the need to be working toward completing at least one item on one of many perpetual lists.  "Infinity lists" if you will.   This weekend I had the opportunity to celebrate a dear friend's upcoming nuptials with an irresponsible bachelorette party complete with laser tag, trampolining, and a wine tasting for a touch of class.  The laser tag and trampolining were, of course, the best parts.  Pure child-like glee.  For two short days my fellow infant academics and I let go of our many infinity lists and allowed ourselves to let loose, laugh endlessly, act goofy.

The thing is, we would never have let loose without the excuse of celebrating our bride-to-be.  That's because we're adults. Kids get to play without purpose, for the heck of it, and adults have to explain themselves when they play.  It seems to me that adults could use the opportunity to let loose even more than kids given their extra life responsibilities (e.g., bills, jobs, loans, regularly brushing teeth).

But here's a radical idea.  Let's not make excuses. Let's not explain ourselves, and find reasons to celebrate, and call things rewards that we never really had to earn in the beginning.  We owe these justifications to no one, including ourselves.  Let's just play.  Unencumbered by infinity lists.  Without expectations for ourselves or others.  With the awe and wonder of children.

Let's just play.