What is the first thing in your mind when you think of your childhood? In my mind, there is no stagnant picture. It is a blur of emotions, a kaleidoscope of memories, fragments bursting with nostalgia. I am on a swing, laughing with my childhood friend in a park underneath the jagged moonlight with a familiar warmth in my soul. The next day, we are playing board games in a sunlit room. She’s wearing a blue dress. I see us laughing about endless things, and it doesn’t matter that we have completely different lives today. For me we are frozen in time, a scene that no cinematic masterpiece can ever replace. She recently messaged me about starting a book club in her school in Dubai. I still can’t believe she doesn’t live across my street anymore.
The most fascinating thing is that childhood is more than a phase in your life. We all outgrow it like our old clothes, but it binds you to a place which is raw and pulsing, instances you can’t forget and those you wish you could. One of my favourite stories, The Little Women, is such a beautiful example.
Four sisters, despite having lives so strongly intertwined, have personalities that branch out into completely different ones. Meg, with her dreams adorned with expensive jewellery, tinged with the rose glow of luxurious ball gowns, had always fashioned a future in a wealthy family. Despite all her fantasies, she married into a completely different reality. Jo, who was fiercely rooted in her independence, and longed for a shot at having her stories published in an era which was unfathomably rough on ambitious, working women. Beth, sweet and quiet, nestled in her home, always content with her family. Amy, growing up impulsive and vain, and eventually evolving into a sophisticated young woman, focused on her artistic career. However, what can never fail to twist my heart is the last scene in the movie. Jo is standing there, holding the book she wrote, and there is a flashback to the 4 sisters as children. Faces aglow in a soft orange hue, they’re playing together, completely carefree, without the world weighing them down.
Whatever happens, wherever life leads them, they will always have the girlhood they shared together. And when I think of my own childhood friend, miles away from me, in my mind we are inseparable in one, significant way. We were girls together.
Sara Agarwal, AS-A
Another Level Higher 