At which point in your life, did the child self die, and the adult self was born?

When i consider my life, from the time that i can remember. I do not have the memory of the child that i was, that ceased to exist and the adult that i am, was born, and I suspect this is the case with you as well. So then, it is interesting to see how our life, in the present, is shaped by a title that is given to us. We are categorized as adults after a certain arbitrary age, at which point ,it is apparently more important to be "responsible" by society's standards than to be ourselves. So, what does being "responsible" generally mean? Well, If you are like most adults. It means that you must learn a trade or a skill, find a meaningless and redundant job, create a family, buy a bunch of stuff (you must do these things , whether you like it or not) and sit with the rest of the responsible adults, whose lives have become a duplicate of each other based on an expectation placed on them by society?

Amidst this confusion, that is accepted by most, what happened to the child that never died? Let's ask what that child was and what aspect of us did we actually suppress when we started to believe what we should be, based on someone else's definition of us.

Well, lets see. The child in us was a being full of potential and uniqueness, who lived in the present, enjoyed life fully, was very curious about new experiences and knowledge. That child was immensely and spontaneously creative and he/she took every opportunity to make connections with anyone and anything that came on his/her path.

So, if we can not remember that aspect of us dying, then what happened to it? How did we go from being a unique creature of potential, happiness, adventure, and creative expression, to an adult that seems to sacrifice all those things for a way of life determined for him or her?

It would not be such a travesty, if the adult that many have become, fully enjoyed and appreciated life for what it is, but for many, that is not the case. Therefore, it is a question that we need to ask, not only because we have forgotten the true nature of ourselves, but also because the more we learn about happiness, the more it becomes clear that, happiness comes from novelty, adventure, creative expression, connection, being in the present and most of all, being and expressing our unique self!

Take a moment, and ask yourself, what aspects of you, did you leave behind when you became an "adult" ? and can you remember that Self that was  immensely curious, adventurous, creative, present, happy and unique?