MUD PLAY My childhood memories are filled with fleeting moments that I want to keep close to my heart. Those were the times when I didn’t care about what tomorrow brought or what I should wear the next day. These things just didn’t matter.  Born as the youngest in the family, I have an older sister and brother, because of a substantial difference in our age, they had already started to go to school when I was just a toddler. Which meant I was left alone to play with myself. Or was I?.  Definitely not. I remember I had a neighbour who was a boy, maybe a year older or two than myself. He was crazy. My family was living, at that time in a house that had lots of trees surrounding it. There was mango trees, guava trees and even cocoa trees. It was also surrounded by lots of shrubs and I still remember there was a big banyan tree that stood in front of the house towards the left, so that when you enter from the gate the first thing you see is the big banyan tree with its roots above the ground, and we used to play in those roots. And I used to fall occasionally. As I think about it, I used to fall every time I used to play or run. I was once a girl who used to play and run and then... Well I would like to say life happened but I think I became lazy.  One thing my this friend is that he used to climb these trees and he was probably five or six. And he used to climb these trees and I used to watch. The stigma of being a girl stuck me from the past. I couldn’t climb the trees because I was a girl and girls shouldn’t do all that. I still remember feeling so hurt but was too young to understand the weight of this opinionated society. Well that’s that. I used to sit in the stairs in my house and stare at the him climbing these trees and having fun. He had freedom which I did not.  But not everything was so gloomy and dull. I had an exception, a time when I could be anyone I wanted or do anything I wanted and that was before my bath time. Mummy would call out to me saying you’re going to bath and then I would run, run as fast as my little legs would carry me to the outside of my house and play with him. The one thing I loved doing or I did during this time (which I wasn’t supposed to do other times) was play in the mud. With him, I used to make mud butterflies in the sand that covered the front yard of the house. I used to laugh so much and the happiness that filled me at that time is something I still remember. I feel my heart fill with happiness every single time I remember this. Even though, I was put into the confines of being a girl it was not something that I actually gave attention because even though I was a girl there were moments like this that reminds me that I was not always put into this strong jail of being a girl and that is enough for me to be happy. I always treasure these loopholes in my life close to my heart because at these times I could be anything I wanted and be anyone I wanted to be. And that’s all everyone wants. Right?