Childlike excitement

We're on excitement-overload right now in the Jelinek household.  Unlike many other school districts, school here won't be starting until after Labor Day.  So the next week and a half seems like an eternity to our girls.  Sierra will be going into 3rd grade and will have the same teacher she had last year, which she's overjoyed about.  She begs to go to the Farmer's Market every Saturday, in hopes that we might run into her teacher there (which we have).  Scarlett will be going into 4-year-old Kindergarten, at Sierra's school.  She's super-excited about being at the big school with the big kids, and though she hardly knows her teacher, she's already drawn her several pictures, making sure to scrawl her teacher's name on the bottom of each.  By Sept. 3, her teacher may have enough Scarlett masterpieces to wallpaper the whole classroom.  This morning, she drew her teacher a crown and demanded that I cut it out so her teacher could actually wear it.  Oh, to be so adored.  :)

There are times that our daughters get so excited about something - an activity, seeing someone they adore, going on a trip, that they simply can't contain their excitement.  They have to do a little dance, sing, squeal, and repeatedly ask, "How much longer?!" just to manage the overflowing excitement.

When is it that we adults lose that sort of excitement?  And why do we lose it?  Perhaps in our teenage years, we think it's uncool to be excited about anything.  Maybe as adults, we figure we should be beyond such childish displays of excitement.  In high school, I remember learning about Stoicism.  I'm sure I missed a lot of the main point of the Stoics, but at the time, I thought it was a pretty smart way to live.  Better to hide your emotions than to let the world see your vulnerability.  I decided to try being stoic.  

I wasn't particularly successful, and I'm glad.  I know now that my philosophy was full of crap.  Why is it better to mask one's excitement?  What good does it do us to hide our pain?  As humans, we need to express our emotions.  We need to feel excited about things.  Showing excitement isn't childish.  It's child-like, and I think it's perfectly okay (and often desirable) for adults to do childlike things.  It keeps us young and helps us appreciate things in our lives.

I must confess that I still get that overflowing excitement feeling sometimes - anticipating a trip to Disney World, the beach or other fun places, jumping in a jumping castle (yes, I jump along with the kids), hearing from good friends, seeing joy in my children's faces, and finding that perfect pair of shoes.  I'm not the most expressive person, but my children have taught me the joy of excitement, and I've resolved to let my excitement shine, rather than hiding it under a serious, grown-up façade.

When's the last time you bubbled over with excitement?  There's nothing quite like it.  Whatever brings you joy and excitement, I pray that you feel childlike excitement again, very soon.