Seasons in the Sun

"We had joy, we had fun, we had seasons in the sun
But the hills that we climbed were just seasons out of time!"

Among few of life's most thrilling experiences, attaining adulthood was by far one of the best. On my eighteenth birthday, i felt like a complete individual. I stood in front of the mirror, beaming with pride. I am an adult now...there was nothing beyond my grasp now. It was as though I was finally old enough to taste the archetypal 'forbidden fruit'... I could enter that domain which so long was not for creatures below eighteen years of age. I felt as though my worth as an individual has multiplied thricefold. I've been an adult for eight years now and this afternoon as I chanced to listen to 'Seasons in the Sun' I began to wish I was not an adult anymore..if only I could journey back in time. It used to be our favourite song in school. I used to have a 'Best Friend' and he and I often used to sing it together. I remember holding him tightly and weeping when he left school. There would be no more of climbing hills and trees, skinning our hearts and knees. I did continue to skin my knees even after he was gone to another school, but it never was as much fun. 'Best friends' indeed are a class of their own !

What is that one thing about childhood that makes us want to get rid of it, while we are into it, and makes us yearn to get it back once we've lost it? Perhaps its the end of innocence that makes growing up such a painful process and its the underestimation which children receive from adults, which makes them want to attain adulthood. Its all a cat and mouse game! My Mum would never let me wear lipstick and I was simply fascinated with the concept of colouring my lips with that pasty, sticky stuff. And i always waited impatiently for the time when i wld be a 'big' girl and could get that perfect red pout. Now that I'm there, I would barter all my chances to paint my lips red to get back to that preserved state of purity...begin life all over again. Maybe at long last, i've discovered the secret of the 'forbidden fruit'. We crave for anything that's forbidden... that's a basic human urge. However the craving is immediately over once that forbidden territory is ventured. This world is indeed an illusion... a mirage, and we are all perhaps racing towards something that doesnt exist. We pursue a thing, anything, till we achieve it. Once achieved, we discover that it is not quite as exotic as it had appeared from a distance. Then begins a new quest, a new race, a new search for that exotic 'something'. And life continues in this endless loop. As a child, my greatest desire was to attain adult hood. As an adult now, I strongly desire to get my childhood back.

What are those seasons in the sun where we will have endless joy and fun? What are those seasons where friends will be friends forever? What are those seasons where the joy of achievement will not be clouded by disillusionment and confusion? Who, where, what is cloud number 9? Or perhaps life is an accumulation of many such seasons, seasons of joy and fun, seasons of wine and song, seasons of coming together and going apart... life is many seasons in the sun !