Childhood gives some ordinary objects a size they never have again.

Scale is set by the body that first met the thing. The staircase, the kitchen table, the garden that seemed to go on were all measured against a much smaller person, and coming back as an adult shrinks them in a way that can be genuinely disorienting. The place did not lie to you. You were another size when the memory was made.

If you return somewhere from your childhood, expect the shrinking and enjoy it rather than reading it as loss. Ask an older relative what the same place looked like to them. And notice what feels enormous to the children around you now.