Where Childhood Lives

2 Jun 2026

I once heard a teacher say that there is a truth we cannot avoid: our childhood memories are deeply tied to the place where we grew up. The culture and environment of that place shape the way we live and see the world. Unfortunately, this is often not connected to our parents’ origins, but rather to where we ourselves are raised—whether that is another city or even another country.

In this way, a sense of family tradition can gradually fade, as each generation is influenced more by the environment they grow up in.

This made me think that perhaps we are born into this world on a kind of journey. Yet within one lifetime, we cannot experience everything or go everywhere. There are things we can only have once—childhood being one of them. It becomes the seed of our life’s direction.

Sometimes, we may feel a sense of regret that our children will not experience the same childhood we had, especially when they grow up in a different place. We may even find ourselves having different perspectives from them, shaped by the environments we each experienced.

But perhaps the deeper truth is that the feeling of belonging remains the same.

So, rather than holding on to what cannot be repeated, what we can do is create meaningful and memorable childhoods for our children—wherever we are.