30 Things From Childhood That We Only Started To Appreciate Once We Grew Up

When I was about 10 years old, I lived next door to a guy who played for the Pittsburgh Penguins. (This is in Massachusetts)

One spring morning, I was playing hockey in the driveway with my friends. Pro hockey playing neighbor comes over to play with us. He was so nice/cool to us. We gave it everything we possibly had, against him, while he wasn't even close to trying. At one point, he took a slap shot that ripped a few seams in my street hockey net. (Worth it.) He also put a dent in the wooden back stop we had behind the net. He stopped after that, because it was as loud as a gun shot and he didn't wanna disturb the neighbors. We were all checking him, hitting him, roughing him up, trying to fight him, etc. and he did a good enough acting job where it kinda seemed like what we were doing was actually semi-effective.

That night, the Penguins had a playoff game against the Bruins, in Boston. Neighbor was an absolute animal that night. He hit everyone who dared to touch the puck, scored a goal, nabbed an assist, got in a fight and eventually got ejected from the game. At the old Garden, the away team had to walk past the Bruin's bench in order to get to their dressing room. When hockey neighbor went to pass by the Bruin's bench, he got into it with the guy at the end and absolutely manhandled him. When a resulting brawl broke out, the camera zoomed in on neighbor who was terrifyingly angry and talking trash. (I could see his mouth form the words "F**K YOU! YEA YOU! F**K YOU!" as blood leaked from the bridge of his nose.) A seriously intimidating individual at 6'5, 250lbs.

In looking back, it's absolutely insane to me that he went from my driveway to my TV screen and that my friends and I also "fought" him earlier that morning.

Not only making friends easily but always getting to hang out with them easily because of school. As an adult, it's difficult finding the right time to hang out with one friend, let alone several.

When I was five or so I was throwing a tantrum. So my dad locked me in his room and let me tire myself out. Once I was quiet, he'd walk in and calmly ask "are you ready to talk?"

The first couple times I baited him and just went back to the tantrum.

The last time, after I was thoroughly disheartened, he explained to me the importance of thinking things through rather than emotionally.

The lesson stuck.

For me my answer is simply my parents. As a kid the life your given tends to be what you think life is. I greatly took for granted my parents and the love they gave me. I never saw them fight or yell at eachother, they never punished me for no reason but rather explained why what I did was wrong (which worked very well) They allowed me freedom as I grew up because they had the mindset of kids and teens make mistakes our job is to help them learn from them. The craziest part about all of this is my parents are extremely Mormon. My dad is a high ranking leader in the church as well as my mom. When I decided it wasn't for me unlike many mormon parents they accepted that and told me they love me no less. This is quite unusual for mormon families especially one this deep in the religion.

Growing up I was like any other kid and would get pissed at my parents for some reason or another. I never told them I hated them but there were times that I felt like that. Looking back that was so childish as they never gave me anything close to a reason to feel that way. I aspire to be in a marriage as good as theirs and I aspire to raise my kids as well as my parents did.

By age five I knew every swimming stroke except the butterfly. Had been given infant swimming lessons; learned to swim before I could walk.

As a kid I kind of noticed other people weren't as comfortable in the water, but it wasn't until adulthood that I realized how many people either couldn't swim at all, or were apprehensive about their skills at it.

Eating whatever you want.

Family gatherings.

Being allowed to be in the room while adults spoke. I would hear things & put them in the back of my mind and forget about them. Whenever they come across my mind in certain conversations & situations, they make so much sense. No, I was never bold enough to ask questions or make comments or statements if I was not being spoken too.

International travel. Seemed normal as a kid, but I didn't realize how rare it was until I was an adult. The family wasn't rich; my parents just put all of their entertainment and discretionary money towards traveling.

Those few kids in school who had it all to be popular and they were, but they weren't mean or cliquey.

They had all the social power a kid could have - they were good-looking, funny, dressed well, athletic, everything - but they didn’t exploit it. They were usually smart and well-behaved (though not too much) but also fun and didn't take themselves too seriously.

I didn't have many friends growing up, and even fewer genuinely good ones because most of my not-so-popular friends secretly wanted to be in those mean cliques and only spoke against them because of sour grapes (I was likely one of them, at least at some point).

I wish I had known to seek out those genuinely decent kids who really had their heads on straight.

Later in life, I got to know some of them and they are still great people - really the best kinds of friends to have. A number of them mentioned that they totally would have been friends with me when we were in school together - they even thought about it, but I didn't seem interested.

I just assumed anyone who had so much going for them wouldn't want to be friends with me.