As our Importance of Play series has previously highlighted, play and playfulness can help teach crucial life lessons, and even provide a good laugh in the process. My name is Aly, and if my pink and purple hair doesn’t speak to my playfulness, then these stories sure should.

When I was 10, my wildest dream came true: my parents took me to get me my very own kitten, Lucy. I never fully understood the term “scaredy cat” until I met her. With the exception of myself, she hid from everyone, only coming out to eat when the coast was clear, scurrying as far behind the furniture as possible in any obscure place she could nestle into. So, when she disappeared after taking a nap with me one afternoon (about two weeks after we rescued her), we thought she was gone forever… That is, until we realized that the food in her bowl in the kitchen was getting emptier and emptier with each morning that passed. She was in the house; we just didn’t know where. So, in order to find her, we developed a game which involved carefully laying out a trail of flour near every nook and cranny in the house knowing we would find little paw prints in one of them to show where she was hiding. After about a week of choosing different corners in the house, I suggested setting up shop by a teeny little hole between our stove and an adjacent cabinet. My parents said there was no way she could fit through that tiny hole, but agreed we had nothing to lose by trying. That night, my dad found paw prints near that corner and traced them to our basement where Lucy was caught like a deer in headlights. Needless to say, the crack between the stove and the cabinet where she had been hiding was closed up immediately.

Life Lesson #32: Sometimes the best things in life are hiding in places you’d least expect them.

The most celebrated holiday in my house as a child was Valentine’s Day. Every year, my mom would wake up early and make a trail of chocolates from my bed to a large pile of gifts in another room of the house. When I woke up, I would take a basket and eagerly collect all of the chocolates, following the trail to the mound of gifts that awaited me which were meant to represent the mound of love in our house.

Life Lesson #27: Don’t question the sweet things in life… or a seemingly endless supply of chocolate.

When I was 4, my preschool class was learning the alphabet by playing a game where everyone in the class was given a letter, and we sat in a circle naming a word that started with the letter we were each given. In this rendition, we were told to pick a word to describe our mothers, and my letter was N. As a four-year-old, you’d think I would have chosen “nice” or “neat,” but instead, I chose neurotic. When the teachers alarmingly asked if I knew what I meant, I gave them a dictionary-worthy definition of the word with a huge smile on my face.

Life Lesson #13: Never underestimate the power of a strong vocabulary. School is cool.

You don’t need stats and science to understand the importance of play. Just think about your favorite memories from your childhood, and guaranteed, you’ll understand the simple fun that comes along with a playful attitude. Have a story worth sharing? We want to hear it! Send us an email at [email protected] with your playful childhood story. You may just see it featured on our blog!

Playfully,

Aly