Reclaiming Lost Childhood

In 2024 I started working. Like for many middle class kids it was the first time I was making money on my own, now with the increase in income the expenses also started growing... I wanted to let loose of my inner child with adult money, and the essence of this post is trying to tell y'all that I kinda did. Now what all did I spend it on ?

The first major spend I did after starting full time role was on the Japan Trip. I don't think it was really something I wished deeply as a kid but I loved the idea about flying and doing an International trip. Buying an Air fryer was something that I did later, Idk if that really was a good investment just yet.. in the coming days I intend to use it a lot more as I'll be living in Calicut again. Much of the money really went into just travelling. I kept running to Trivandrum, and Calicut every chance I get. I really wanted to buy a camera, I was on the verge of buying one and at that time I was left with a choice. It was either Camera or COSCUP 2025 in Taiwan. My proposal for the "Better Healthcare tools for Everyone" had gotten approved and will be not funded by them tho. As I was planning to quit my job I realised that's my last chance to showcase what I had done in the past 1 year at OHC Network. So adult money really went into 2 Asian trips.

Now on the otherside I am seeing my amma Reclaiming Her Lost Childhood, Idk how much she is spending on it but I gotta be honest her's feel more fulfilling. She as a child didn't had half the privileges I had growing up. And I've been seeing her fighting for that second chance.

From 2023 onward she was learning Bharatanatyam and persevered even when many that were with her from start decided to quit and reached this far and completed her aranghettam 2 Months back. I heard my Grandma saying she used to tell her that she wanted to learn dance, but didn't get the chance. She spend her adult money and time to do what she loved and complete it. Which is really inspiring.

For a long while my amma was trying to learn english. She went to the the standard Malayalam medium schools and didn't really had the chance to get good in the language. I have Cartoon Network, PoGo and all the english cartoons I used to watch to thank for teaching me get the basics and my time at NITC interaction with non Malayalam speaking students for getting better in the language.

I tried her battling this for a long while now... I seen her signing up for multiple spoken english classes and nothing realy worked out until just recently she started doing this group talks sessions at night. Everyday at 9PM she finishes up all her pending chores and join the whatsapp group call along with an instructor as well as other women to simply talk, discuss their day learn new words analyze the recent socio political issues without judging each other, a safe space to make mistakes and grow.

I started writing this trying to contrast how we both are spending money to reclaim our childhoods. I thought I had more points to add about what I spend my adult money on. I'm having a hard time trying to quantify it. which might sound I am doing a bad job at it.. but to be very honest it's the little things... getting the best portion when buying food, spending money on finding gifts for the ones you love going to random places when ever I want.

In short mine tends to be very materialistic, and yet I don't really have anything solid to show for, Except the moments that have now passed, the laughs shared, journeys taken, and the good food that I had. Is this growth ? Only time will tell Ig. : )