A thought provoking question

Today I came across a question that forced me to think about it long and hard and I still have not found an answer to it. The topic of conversation with some colleagues was how children are so upbeat about the day when they wake up in the morning fresh and ready to live it as they desire.

During the conversation my friend suddenly asked the question, when does the change happen when you stop jumping out of bed in the morning with enthusiasm and optimism, genuinely looking forward to the day. That question for some reason stuck in my head. My mind took it even further by asking me WHY does it happen; because personally in this case why is more important than the when.

The challenge to finding an answer to this is that that ‘when’ happened such a long time ago that I will struggle to remember the ‘why’. Is the reason for this change a chemical change in your body or is it a state of mind that one enters which causes him to loose this happiness.

I think it is the state of mind that causes this change. When we are very young time is immaterial. A child will get up in the morning with all the time in the day to do all things his mind comes up with during that day. As you get a little older this luxury is taken away because of the child having to devote more time to certain obligations, for instance, starting nursery school. When the child commits some of his time everyday to obligatory duties I think that is the time waking up stops being so optimistic and energetic. The question here is, again, why. It doesn’t necessarily mean that the child is doing something it doesn’t want to do but I think its more of the element of being controlled by a timeline that comes with the territory.

So do you think that the mere realisation that there will be some parts of the day which we will have to spend doing something pre-prescribed (generally by someone else)? I have not found the answer within me, for this question. Can you?