1. Innocence.

Remember when we were immediately reprimanded for merely uttering the words “shut up”, or thrashing an insult at someone relatively as bad as “You’re annoying”? I do. Racial slurs, derogatory names, and other untold amounts of demeaning phrases are juggled daily, sometimes even with humorous hopes of being a greeting or joke between friends. It’s sad, really, that throughout time our generation has come to acknowledge such wounding words as less meaningful, and therefore they have become so familiar in our vocabulary that often times we don’t even realize we say them. If only the old soap in the mouth trick were around today; everyone would admittedly, and reluctantly, be relishing the taste of Dove.

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2. A Limitless Imagination.

If today we went out and and pretended we were animals on our quad, or better yet created a treasure map and hunted down every location on campus trying to find gold, everyone, and I mean everyone, would think we’re going insane. When we were younger anything was possible; we could conform to just about anything we wanted to be, no rules and nobody telling you it wasn’t possible. If you wanted to be an astronaut, believe me, you were getting on that next NASA shuttle to Mars. President? Sure, let me get started on my speech for the election. A chef? I know I could cook up one of the best mud pies you’ve ever seen. Now, we’re constantly constrained with the harsh reality that not everything is possible, or so we are told. Time and time again we are convinced we can’t do what our heart is set on; our generation is built on a platform of who is making the greatest income, what company you are working for, and how many hours you put in a week. What happened to doing what you love? Happiness could be so simple if only the world no longer revolved around materialistic wants.

3. The Depiction of Beauty.

Remember when you had no clue how to put on makeup? Or honestly, what makeup even was? Mascara was used to give you a mustache, eye shadow justified your face being a human coloring book, and lipstick was used to give your cheeks a cute makeover. It was all innocent, childish play until you grew up into a world where you were categorized by “the beautiful” and “the ugly”, and I’m not talking personality wise. Suddenly, society deemed norms that everyone had to conform to; those who differed from what was acceptable spent hours looking in the mirror convincing themselves their value was much less than it was ever supposed to be. Making sure your weight is viewed as healthy and “skinny”, your hair viewed as straight and desirable, your height viewed as tall, but somehow short at the same time because no one wants to look lanky. Rule after rule we slug ourselves around chasing the unattainable perfection, and continuously blaming ourselves for things that we can not control! Didn’t anyone pay attention in biology!? Genetics, people.

4. Crushes and Unadulterated Love.

See him? Yeah, him over there? Yup. I love him. If only that was so easy today. Expectation after expectation and the dismissal of chivalry makes falling in love all that much harder. For girls, we feed off of the idea that a boy will come around, ask you on a date, give you flowers, tell you how wonderful you are all the time, and basically make you feel as though cloud 9 is a likely destination in your near future. Boys, booty calls will get you nowhere. We always desire what we can’t have, because yes nowadays us girls are stereotyped as objects of entertainment put forward for other people’s pleasure. On the other hand, guys are viewed as slobs who will eat doritos and leave cheese smudges on their sweats while playing Call of Duty. We’re all human, people! What happened to the playful teases on the playground? The mystery behind the “secret admirers”? Asking people out face to face! Dates!? Are these all ancient terms? I don’t think so, step up your game friends.

5. Confidence.

It didn’t seem like such a foreign term for you years ago. We live in a society where having your voice heard isn’t the easiest task to complete. Fearing judgement and hushed murmurs about what you’re doing or how you’re answering. Unthinkingly speaking out without raising your hand was a common pastime you frequently made in fifth grade music class. Punished? Yes. Regretful? Never. You know it was worth it, cause in the end everyone chuckled at the funny joke you were able to slide in before Mr. or Mrs. So and So told you to close your yapper. Where’s that standout confidence today? Masked by the things you feel you should do and the ways you think you should behave. Tsk, tsk.

6. Worry-Free

Colored a mural of gorgeous Crayola assortments on your bedroom wall? Yeah Mom seems pretty angry, but tomorrow it won’t matter. Failed your Calc final? Yeah.. this is gonna be a tough one. Worries are only greater and more abundant as you grow up, and this time they can most definitely affect how tomorrow will pan out. Handle an interview poorly? Looks like you’re not getting that internship you’ve worked for all year. You were easily given to the count of three (luckily, sometimes, in “Mississippi’s”) to consider changing whatever silly crime you had just committed; today you’ve got one shot and you’re done.

7. Friends and Cliques

Inviting everyone in your class to your birthday party or making sure you had a Valentine’s Day card and candy ready for everyone was always on your to-do list. Sure, there was the occasional bully, but at the end of the day Mrs. Second Grade Teacher made you guys sit down and talk it out. Now, you’re told to find your place amongst a sea of different people. Where will you fit in? It’s an impossible task to complete because we have so many different facets to our personality. What if I want a crazy friend, and a shy friend, and an athletic friend.. so many friends! It feels so hard trying to expand today because everyone is so comfortable with their place. You don’t want to leave one group to hang out with another, but you don’t want to keep standing up that other group. Why is that a thing!?

8. Open Circle.

Yeah we dreaded it at the time, but wouldn’t you do anything to have a non-opinionated place to turn to on your down days? It was forced, and maybe we clumsily admitted to how we felt when Mike took our bag of chips out of our lunch, but it taught us all an important lesson. To accept, listen without distractions, and offer support to those who needed it. The talking stick was crazy, but it did indeed work. Now we find ourselves grabbing our phone and texting people brief explanations of what we’re dealing with, because we find it harder to speak out in person. So what if you cry, let it out! We shouldn’t be bottling our every emotion inside of us waiting for it to suddenly explode one day.. we all know that never works out in our favor. And people say elementary school never taught us anything valuable.