By Attiya Karodia

While driving through a part of land that I remember so well as a child, I compared what I experienced back then to the way I perceive the world now, and the more I notice how my youth has faded, the sadder I become.

The smell of the air out in the veld lifted my soul when I was young, and I don’t even think to revive that feeling anymore, I’m more concerned with the technicalities of the journey, the stay and the work I have waiting for me when I return to the city.

Life manages to slowly numb the child inside us, killing off our youthful spirits with hardship, societal expectations, responsibility and the notion that “nice guys finish last“. In the bid to be ‘grown up’, we lose the important virtue of Youth, and what’s more is that we ignore the true nature of our souls and spirits, which is ageless and constant regardless of the wrinkles on our faces.

So I’m trying to reach my inner-child again, feeling the awe that comes with a new place instead of the un-fazed mask I wear to look ‘well travelled’. I’ll be smiling when I see something beautiful, instead of maintaining my composure in the face of people I might need to impress.

And instead of starving the laughter my young soul wants to release, I’ll feed the child inside me, with things that make me wonder, and marvel, and smile, and above all, things that make me dream all over again.