Toy Store

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We’re still kids acting like mature adults for the younger ones. Who else would they look up to but us?

Chatter fills the aisles as I navigate through the unrest of malls. Instinctively enamored by the glint of the toy store, thousands of restless thoughts are silenced by the sight of what once was.

Reminiscent of the excitement back then, it still glimmers in the present. An adult finding solace in a place where childlike wonder once took place. Lifting the demands of adulthood, warmth mends the younger soul that misunderstood.

Maybe it’s due to missing that same naivety back then—the things I wasn’t able to have but wanted.

Reoccurring same response from back then: “We’ll buy you one next time.” Holding on to a promise—as though a false sense of hope that one day I’ll reach that display. Unfathomably yearning for the place of those paying at the counter.

With age, the pleading came to a fault. Gazing at my parents striving to provide came with a realization: They would if they could—which suffices, carrying renewed purpose to hope.

Hope and fulfillment brought about by going to toy stores were never about having, but about admiring.

Others attaining what I lack offers comfort. The beam of the innocents finds its way to mine, worth every sacrifice. Is this what our loved ones thought when it was them?

Adult life teaches you that there are far more things your loved ones sacrifice—dreams, aspirations, goals. Now you find yourself in the same display, facing the same problems and difficult sacrifices.

Memories and visions lay on the shelves, waiting for the right moment and person to take them, each one costing parts of yourself for it to be attained.

Some took paths different from what they once envisioned, shaped not by the turns but by the journey that led them down that aisle.

Looking at it now, I’m grateful. Indebted to the carts of silent sacrifices, which molded the self. Hope that kept glimmering, even though it was meant for another.

It’s funny how now that I can afford one, I choose to admire—things beyond material artifacts. Memories are what bring change, lingering in the mind, lasting a lifetime.

Written by Samrix Tilanas, Staff Writer