I believe there are not many things that a child may long for. All they know is happiness, love, and fun all day; that's their top priority. And as a kid, I really did not care much about how I'd survive the morning or how I'd sleep at night. I never thought about breakfast or a bed to slay my head. I just wanted to be happy all day for the rest of my life.
...for the rest of my life.
And that shouldn't be so hard, right? I mean, we weren't designed for a life of difficulties and struggles. We were not built for a world full of hate and too little love to go around... according to the tales of Adam and Eve.
The world in which we live is one that's cruel, and it is most especially so for those that do not have the bare necessities, the simple bare necessities, to get through life. Imagine how tough life can be for orphanage kids. Ever heard of Oliver Twist? Yeah, he had it quite rough while he was growing up.
I, however, was fortunate to be "privileged" as a kid. I did not have all I ever wanted. Heck, I did not even have most of what I wanted. But I had all I needed.
You see, to me, privilege is not just about the nice shoes and nice clothes, or the fancy house and the cool video games and all that. It is priceless to have someone who will love and care for you no matter what, and even provide the necessities you require just when you need them. I never had to worry about food or living a healthy lifestyle. I had people and a good environment, among many other things, all around me. I was shown a lot of love as a kid.
This, however, is not the same for many people. It is not the same for many kids, actually. This is why we'll be doing something a little different this weekend.
Weekend engagement concepts are provided by our very own G-dog.And this time, I'll be taking a kid out. But I can only pick one (not both) of two underprivileged kids, a boy and a girl, both 10 years of age. I will be paying for the child's expenses for fun and excitement. And not the college funds.
I didn't have to think long about which child I'd take on my all-expenses-paid weekend of fun and excitement. Although, for both genders, there are different approaches to this matter. The things a boy would like (or love) to do on such a weekend will be very different from what a girl would want to do.
When I was 10, we had different classes for specific age groups before the teen years. For example, I was aged 9–12 when And even at that time, the choices the boys made compared with the girls' were often vastly different. We literally had the class split into two; one half of the class containing the boys, and the other half containing the girls.
This was all crazy because we had two completely different auras in the same classroom. The boys may be playing energy-demanding games, and then, in the same instance, the girls would be gossiping about the boys. We often had clashes.
Today I’ll be Uncle Joe. I’ll will be taking the boy to take out on ᴏʟᴜᴊᴀʏ's ʜᴏʟɪᴅᴀʏ. This is not because I am a guy and that I wouldn't want to pick the girl for biased reasons.
Well, being a guy is actually influencing my decision, and this is because I kind of know what could make the child happy. My goal is to provide a memorable experience for a child, and I can do so best if I have ideas about what the child might want.
There are certain fun experiences I had as a kid that I would love to share. But they really are not the type that girls may fancy. I personally preferred energy-demanding activities when I was a kid, and I would expect most boys to be the same. However, I am assuming girls would just prefer to buy things and go sight-seeing, maybe eat some candies as well. I am not really sure what it is that girls do. I never had a sister.
Arcade games
I know we are no longer in the nineties or eighties, what do I know about the nineties? but let's center around the whole video game stuff.
I loved video games so much as a kid. They made me so happy every time I got to play them. And this was so for many of the friends I had then. We'd stop by all these game centers where they had Playstations, and we'd pay to play for a while.
There are many malls that have video game spots where you get to play many sorts of games. I'd like to take the children there. He may have never been around, so I guess he'd be thrilled to be there.
Paintball...
I am not sure if kids are allowed to play this everywhere. But they advertise it to be safe, so I guess kids can play it any way.
Many boys love role-playing and shooting games. So much so that they actually act it out whenever they can. Taking a kid to actually do some real shooting, but not actually shooting, and knowing that there'll be no actual harm done is just perfect for them. You get to see the soldier in them.
Amusement Parks
I love thrills. I love breath-taking moments of fun. At that moment, you feel scared for your life, when it's not in actual danger, and then you feel excited in the midst of that fear. There were some crazy rides in amusement parks that offered these kinds of thrills, and I absolutely loved them. Some of them can even make you begin confessing your sins.
I am not sure about the names of many of the rides, but there are a few I know I always enjoyed: the ferris wheel, bumper cars, roller-coaster, and scrambler.
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Aquarium
I'm sure the kid may have heard about Aquaman, so I'll just tell him, "I'm sorry your bubbles, there ain't no Aquaman here." And then I'll follow up nicely and say, "But there are really cool fish there. How about we find out if you can talk to them? "
I'll try to show him as many fishes that I myself don't even know about.
Shopping & Food
Most malls these days have video game spots and really nice food courts. We'll stop at one food court, and then I'll ask him to choose whatever it is he'd like to eat.
The weekend will be over shortly, but even more than the memories he has made with Uncle Joe, he'll need clothes, shoes, and many things of that sort. I'll take him around to really nice boutiques.
After all has been said and done, it'll be time to leave.
I know a lot of money would have been spent on these escapades. But hey, as long as it puts a very big smile on the kid's face and leaves lasting memories that'll make him forget that he is underprivileged, it'll forever be worth it.
ℍ𝕖𝕪, 𝕚𝕗 𝕪𝕠𝕦 𝕖𝕟𝕛𝕠𝕪𝕖𝕕 𝕥𝕙𝕚𝕤 𝕡𝕠𝕤𝕥, 𝕜𝕚𝕟𝕕𝕝𝕪 𝕝𝕖𝕒𝕧𝕖 𝕒 𝕔𝕠𝕞𝕞𝕖𝕟𝕥, 𝕣𝕖𝕓𝕝𝕠𝕘, 𝕠𝕣 𝕦𝕡𝕧𝕠𝕥𝕖. 𝕀𝕥'𝕝𝕝 𝕤𝕦𝕣𝕖 𝕓𝕖 𝕒𝕡𝕡𝕣𝕖𝕔𝕚𝕒𝕥𝕖𝕕.