SOMEWHERE IN NEVERLAND

Faith, Trust, and Pixie Dust

This past weekend, my mom flew into town for a short visit to go to my Lasik consultation (I will no longer have glasses come March 19!) and to see the Colorado Ballet’s rendition of Peter Pan. As you can probably guess from my column name and a past column explaining my love for Peter Pan, I was pretty excited to see this at the ballet.

The audience was filled with, of course, lots of young kids and parents but also older folks and those that fit more into my age range. Honestly, I was kind of shocked by such a diverse age range for an event that combined such a refined—and quite frankly, stuffy art form—with a story that is wholly childish. I’m not afraid to admit that I still like childish things at 20 years old, but I know that I definitely take myself a bit too seriously from time to time and should probably learn to lighten up a bit. I think this ballet was the perfect combination of both of those ends of the spectrum for me.

I loved being able to relive little aspects of my childhood that I cherished so much as a kid and get to experience that “childlike wonder” again while I was watching the same storyline I’ve seen a million times over unfold in front of me in one of the most eloquent art forms out there. I truly don’t even really know how to explain how it made me feel in words but nostalgic, I suppose, is probably the closest I could get to feeling what I felt watching that.

I’m sure I wasn’t the only one around my age feeling an array of emotions along these lines at the show and most of the kids probably just felt amazed and wonderment. I realized that for those 2.5 hours, I got to be a kid again and not take myself so seriously for a short time and that I never really realized how fast time flies by. I’m sure none of us ever really realize how fast we grow up and time flies by, and we all need those moments to feel like a kid again. Afterall, in the words of J.M. Barrie, “I suppose it’s like the ticking crocodile, isn’t it? Time is chasing after all of us.”

Editor’s Pick: Ribs by Lorde