I remember it like it was yesterday. The jangling of the swing sets that I fell off of too often and the creaking of the see-saw will forever be emblazoned in my mind as the easiest time my life. Even as I kid, I knew I didn’t want to grow up, and face the harsh realities of life. Everything was so much simpler back then, when all we worried about was how long we had to wait in line to play tetherball. We never gave on thought about who was the prettiest or skinniest; we didn’t care about such petty things. Our sweet, innocent minds couldn’t comprehend what racism or sexism was. In our brains, another person was just another playmate, and when someone said that boys were better, we resolved the problem by simply saying, “Girls rule, boys drool!” We knew we weren’t better than anyone else; we were all just kids, just trying to have fun, just trying to understand this boisterous world. One day, we understood too much. I don’t exactly remember when it was, but we lost everything. All of the pieces fell into place, and we finally realized that we didn’t like this puzzle. But we couldn’t go back. Being too innocent was considered embarrassing, naive, childish. No, we had to face life. As awful as it is, and as terrorizing it will be, we have to press on. This world is devastating, but we can never go back to those easy days, when we all peacefully sat on the swing set, listening to the jangling of the chains.