When I think of my childhood, the first word that pops into my head is love.  I was extremely lucky as a child, and still today, because people surround me who I admire, trust, cherish and have the utmost love for.  My parents, my grandma, my brother and sister, my best friend, my boyfriend, my parents'; friends and their families, my past pets and my newfound friends at Ithaca College and Cornell.  These are people who lift me up when I'm in my darkest hour and who praise me and give me affection when I've accomplished even the most smallest of tasks to the most astounding, eye-widening things.  When I was younger, both of my parents worked daily so I was with my grandma every day for the entire day up until the time I went to school.  Even then, she would be home when I arrived home from school, until my mother decided to take time off to be home with my siblings and myself.  My father would come home from work and smother me with hugs and kisses and sing to me.  We spend Thanksgiving, Christmas, New Years Eve and even Spring Break together because our memories stem from their love of life and our bond with each other.  I look at their two daughters as two older sisters to me, girls who I went to visit at college when I was 16, girls who helped me to apply makeup and girls who give me the advice and protection I've always wanted from an older sibling.  I have two younger siblings and it gives me such tremendous joy to watch them grow into little people and help them along their way to greatness.  You see, all my life I've known nothing else but love, and when I leave college and head into the world with a family of my own, love is all I ever want them to know.
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 One of many happy childhood memories included my older brother.Since
 his 10th grade year (he's 6 years older older than me), he moved away with my
dad in Massachusetts, and I haven't seen him that often. This is why I
remember the times I had with him so well, because there aren't that many of
them.
      I remember we used to get a few of his friends and a few of mine
together once every weekend. Then we would all pick teams and play football in
our side yard for about 5 hours a day. This was always so much fun just
because it gave us all something fun to do and personally, I loved the game.
The only break we would take all day was when my mom would make us all
something to eat and drink sometime during it. It was so much fun because we
would do it on a nice fall day, or a rainy fall day, or a snowy winter day.
      Another thing that we would do after that, is go and get many other kids
in the town and play full-town games of hide and seek that night. It was fun
because so many kids would get together and just have fun. It seems that those
days are over now, and this saddens me, because those are some of my best
memories ever.


Another student wrote:

Childhood is not only a time for experimentation with all of the new things that we have discovered in our lives, but also a time to play and have fun.  I remember when I was a young child and my life was dominated by those dreaded naps which I now love and playing with toys, all the time.  If something bad were to happen one day, no more than a day later, it is forgotten, and the happy-go-lucky times return.  Now, if ever there is a time that I am sad, I hink back to when I was a child. There never was a time when I was “stressed out” or overtired.  I then take a little break and just relax and think. Then life gets back to normal.  Childhood seems to have the ability to do crazy things like run around in the rain or jump in puddles just for fun, without worrying about the loads of laundry mom will have to do to get all of the grass stains and dirt out of your jeans, and sweatshirt.  Children don’t think twice before doing things, they use impulse and have more fun because of this.  I think that when we get stressed and tired, we should take those few minutes and think back to when we were children and life will go back to normal.