For certain people, the years of childhood become in memory a type of idyllic paradise, when comparatively life was much better and easier. But if you actually remember some of your childhood years, I think many people would admit that it was no less fraught with ordinary ups and downs than the grown-up life. Having a routine, as children do also, innately creates a boom-bust cycle of monotony and obligation juxtaposed with times of leisure and entertainment. And as a kid, the degree of contrast between the two can make your times of liberation particularly meaningful. In my case, I would always do at least two pages of my alphabet book before I could play the Hercules action game on the computer. Despite the game's punishing difficulty, those reprieves when I got to play was one of my childhood paradises. However, this wasn't the only or best for me. There were other forms of relaxation, peculiarly meaningful to me as a child, when my child brain could find a particularly satisfying state of relaxation. The greatest may have been the small compartment behind the recliner in our living room. Especially when my stomach hurt, I could crawl in there and meditate on my thoughts in a place of silence and privacy. For me as a boy, that was undoubtedly one of my childhood paradises.
During your time as a child, what places or activities were your personal refuge where you were free from obligation and negativity? Did you have a lot of things like that or only a few? Did you have to fight for your paradise or was it given to you as an entitlement? Was it even a meaningful distinction for you as a child? Personally, the distinction was extremely important to me and it turned out to be a very long-lasting dichotomy of view between an innately unpleasant societal world and a peaceful and soothing state of isolation on the other hand. Though it was not guaranteed and I had to earn it, I appreciated the ability to escape into a retreat by myself. As it turned out, video games remained integral to my conception of relaxation for a long long time.
