Remember elementary school when all you had to worry about were math boxes and where you were going to meet your friend from a different class for recess? There was no added stress of a job or sports that required so many extra hours of conditioning and film watching, it was merely you showed up for an hour practice and just messed around with friends compared to the many long double practices and destined injuries. Not just with sports either but the workload was far less and the amount of time playing outside with good friends was more. I understand that as you grow up you are able to handle more stress and your eyes are opened to a bigger World full of hate and violence, but your innocence shouldn’t diminish. You should relive your innocent days and not force yourself to grow up faster than you should. Remember that there was a time in your life when your biggest problem was a broken balloon string.

The marching band and a few of the color guard members went to Pine Ridge out of tradition on Halloween to march around the halls and play music for all the kids, and there was one girl that I noticed who was dressed up as a cloud. Yes I know that sounds strange because many girls choose to be princesses or witches but this one particular girl decided to be different. She wasn’t made fun of, she wasn’t laughed at, instead many of the other kids loved her costume and that intrigued me because as kids get older they become less accepting and cruel. But, this girl had the biggest smile on her face and I could tell that she loved her costume and not only was she covered in foam filling but she was holding onto a sun balloon that every other kid was mesmerized by. The balloon was accompanied by rain drops tied on by fishing line underneath and to completely tie the costume together she wore blue eyeshadow on her eyelids, and every other highschool girl knows that this was the statement peice of elementary school when our mothers let us put makeup on ourselves. Innocence is what I took away from this little girl because she had no cares in the World, she was just happy to be a cloud.

It wasn’t until halfway through our performance that all of the kids started pointing to the sky and looking up I saw that sun cloud floating away. Of course I let out a little chuckle because all the kids were waving goodbye to the balloon, and turning to the little girl I expected her to be sad, which she was, but what I didn’t expect was for all her classmates trying to make her smile and wiping the tears out of her eyes. Of course, friends are there for you no matter what but her whole class was trying to make her feel better. Again, the innocence of these little kids warmed my heart and made me think why can’t older kids be the same way. Why does our innocence diminish so fast. Next time, you see a balloon floating away console the person that lost it even if you don’t particularly know them because a broken balloon string is one of the smallest problems somebody could have.