When I Was a Kid…

If you take two minutes to sit down and think about all the things you've done in your life that made you happy, what would be the common thread between all those events? There are moments in life when you're more likely to ask yourself these kinds of questions. Often, it's experience that brings more depth to your judgment. With distance, you can put things in perspective. You understand that you often made yourself unhappy over details, but also that you took certain things for granted. You were happy, but not really aware of being so…

Today, when I think about the time when I was a kid, I can't help but smile. What makes me smile has nothing to do with the mischief or jokes I might have played with my friends. It's more related to the way I approached life back then.

I grew up in the Mont St-Hilaire region in a developing neighborhood bordered by a large wooded area. In summer, I spent my days with my friends living BMX adventures, building cabins in the woods, or exploring nature. In winter, we spent hours building forts or finding new slopes to go sledding. Between you and me, if there's at least one time in our existence when we didn't care about the weather, it's definitely in our childhood when we spent our time playing outside!

One memory that particularly strikes me is this insane slope where I used to go near my father's workplace. Every evening after school, I would gather my sled and my friends and we would climb the mountain, feeling in advance the exhilaration that this vertiginous descent would give us. In my memories, the ascent of this Everest was a real expedition. But since the game was worth the candle, we never questioned the effort required to reach the summit. Unconsciously, there was a connection between the pride of meeting this physical challenge and the intensity of the thrill that overwhelmed us during the descent. Yes, there were slopes that were harder to climb, but they were also less fun to go down.

From a very young age, I always loved playing outside. Today, when I think back to when I was a kid, I miss the moments when we found ourselves outside learning together to meet challenges. For me, there's nothing more unifying than a group of humans encouraging each other to push their limits. There's no better place than nature to create bonds. Outside, technology loses its grip on us and we start communicating again without intermediaries, in a more instinctive and authentic way.

Even though I've changed since then, I still want to climb mountains like when I was a kid. The difference is that even if there's no slide going down, there's still always a gift whose form I don't know on the other side of each summit I reach. And that's the beauty of growing up, being able to understand that time that passes doesn't come back. Don't waste your time anymore! Do like when you were little and find a mountain that suits you. Nature will always remind you where you come from.