Free Essay About Childhood

While accidents may appear a normal ingredient of everyday life, the ones we experience as kids remain stuck on our memories. Perhaps this is because the mind of a child, young and tender as it is, has not fully developed to the extent of withstanding bloody scenes. So funny is human nature that after a few years, the grotesque memories are erased and just vivid images of the ugly scenes remain. Sooner than one can realize, they perceive the erstwhile horror scenes as normal negatives of life. As such, the impression changes greatly. This essay endeavors to explain the differences in impression with regard to horrific experiences in extreme contexts – the view point of a child, and the interpretation of an adult.
This reminds me of one ugly accident I saw at the age of seven. A car’s braking system had failed, causing it to ram into the back of a lorry that was ahead. Since we were driving keenly in our family car, we pulled up at the roadside to go and see what had happened to the people in the car. The scene that met my eyes was ugly. The driver of the car lay on the staring causing a continuous hooting. He was motionless and was bleeding profusely. People were quickly gathering to find out what was going on. In the ensuing melodrama, the police arrived and took control of the situation. We slowly drove off, with somber silence in our car. The scene remained stuck in my mind for a very long time. Every time I found myself in darkness, the picture of the bleeding man flashed through my mind and I could get extremely scared.
However, with time, the ugly picture faded and everything from the accident appeared acceptable. The main reason why we tend to forget the experiences from our childhood is because psychologically, an adult’s mind is developed to the extent to understanding things, related to nature and environment and the extent to which such factors affect human existence. Experts in psychology argue that a child’s mind does not fully perceive the reasons for such occurrences as death. The lack of ability to understand makes them scared of such things. If I were to experience the same accident I experienced at the age of seven today, things would be different. For instance, I would not get nightmares from what I had seen. On the contrary, I would easily see it as a normal part of life.
As a matter of fact, my adult impression of the accident would be different. The main reason for this claim is that an adult’s mind is usually preoccupied with both positive and negative things and expectations. Looking back, I find my fears quite unreasonable and unjustifiable because as an adult, I now understand that when an accident occurs, injuries are bound to be sustained and death is among the possibilities. However, I wouldn’t blame my childhood mind a bit. This is because as a child, I had not seen such a bloody scene before. Additionally, I had not expected to see a man die so miserably in a grisly accident. Perhaps one of the main factors that differentiate my childhood impression from my adult impression is the fact that as a child, the scenes from horror movies corrupted my mind, and whenever I saw an ugly scene, I would haunt me endlessly. As an adult, I have come to understand that horror movies are not real – they are fabricated moves. As such, I don’t relate real life ugly scenes with movies; hence, I do not hang on to the scary moments.