With all the crazy sh*t happening in the world today, we here at CC can’t help but think back to the days when the biggest issue in our lives was whether our Mom had put our favorite over-sized T-shirt (with the Coke Bears on it!) in the laundry yet.

Yeah, we’re talking about Elementary School.

And maybe we’re not even talking about the Elementary School of today, because apparently kids are alergic to everything and on mood-altering drugs and having sex at 11. We’re talking about the Elementary School of our youth. Troll Dolls. New Kids On The Block (the first time). Side pony-tails. Dunkaroos. Life was so much fun back then — or at least our nostalgia tells us it was.

In honor of our childhoods, and because we are so. drained. from a week full of political and economic strife, we’ve decided to put together the 10 Best Things About Elementary School. Feel free to add your own happy memories in the comments…

10) Lunchables

Yeah. These things were really bad for us. They were full of chemicals and sugar. Refined and processed. But hot damn, were they good.

9) Cootie Catchers

How many of these could you make in thirty seconds? How many times did you actually believe with your heart and soul that Sean, who sat two desks over, was actually going to fall in love with you because the Cootie Catcher said so? P-U-R-P-L-E…

8 ) Homework That Included Coloring

Booyah. This was the sh*t, right up there with making dioramas out of shoe boxes. Color the 50 states? Sure. Color the different parts of the flower? WHY NOT? Nothing was better than lulling yourself into a zen-like state with coloring and calling it “work”.

7) Skip-It

One time, I Skipped-It around my entire block for an hour. Exercising has only gone downhill since…

6) Yoo-Hoo

Do they even sell this stuff anymore? It’s probably known to cause cancer now, but back in Elementary School, this drink was as valuable as pure crack cocaine from Colombia. You could bargain for anything with Yoo-Hoo, including your friend’s half-baked cookie from hot lunch.

5) Trapper Keepers

If people wouldn’t look at me weird, I would still be using my Lisa Frank trapper keeper from 5th grade. That bitch held everything, even pens. Plus, you could add all the cute kitten and Troll doll folders you wanted to it and it would still close

4) Snap Bracelets

These things were outlawed in my school as soon as they arrived, but the potential to actually cut someone only made them cooler. If you sat in the back of the bus, you could watch boys having whipping contests with them — first one to shed a single tear loses.

3) Anything with Unicorns on it

Unicorns were hip in Elementary School. Especially if they had wings, or were painted in really bright colors. You could have Unicorns on your pens, notebooks, pencil cases, shirt…the list goes on. I can’t own anything with a Unicorn anymore, even though my love for them is still strong.

2) Sharkbites Fruit Snacks

Remember the white ones that tasted like all the colors combined? It was like an explosion in your mouth.

1) Recess

Tackling boys and throwing to the ground without worrying about restraining orders, getting “married” by the tire swing, testing the boundaries of your courage by kicking the tree with the bees in it; recess was pretty much the best thing the public school system ever did for us. I’ve never laughed so hard in my entire life than when I watched my friend Bobby try to jump off a swing, only to have his jacket get caught by the chain, and fly backwards like a rag doll 6 feet in the air. Oh man. Good times.

Shopping for elementary school supplies was so much more fun – you got to stock up on your favorite Lisa Frank supplies and you begged your mom to buy you a few gel pens because everyone was using them.

This year, instead of making a quick pit-stop at Staples on the way to school and buying a few notebooks and black pens, why not bring some of that grade school excitement back with fun school supplies?

Remember how excited you were to use those gel pens to fill out worksheets in the first couple weeks of school? How cool it was to start a brand new notebook? Here are some funky school supplies that will make you want to head to class, take some notes, and do some hardcore studying. Or at least they will help you make friends by serving as a good conversation starter for the girl sitting next to you.

This stuff puts the “cool” back in school. Yeah…I went there.

Calculator – You will probably need to bring one of those nerdy graphing calculators to your Advanced Stats class, but why not buy one of those enormous & brightly colored calculators for when you just need to add, subtract, multiply, or divide? Math sucks, but bright pink makes everything better.

Staplers - The pink one is pretty (who doesn’t love sparkles?!) and the fist shaped one will bring some humor into the situation when you’re trying SO hard to smash that staple into your 12 page paper or 40 pages of reading that you had to print yourself.

Planner – You probably usually buy one of those cheap, boring planners that you throw away every year. Like that will motivate you to stay organized. Invest in a nice planner, preferably a leather one, that you can buy new inserts for each year. It is sturdier, cuter and will help you keep track of your crazy life!

Laptop Accessories – You’ll probably bring your laptop to class a lot because Solitaire definitely helps the time pass quicker (erm, I mean so you can take notes faster!). Just throwing it in your bag is definitely a bad idea; you don’t want it to get scratched, bumped or ruined when that bottle of Diet Coke explodes.

Protect that little guy with a case, just not one of those nerdy shoulder bags your parents will try to make you buy. This case is cute and functional, but if the dots are too much for you there are tons of cases out there in a variety of colors and designs. Check out the Apple store or Best Buy for a huge selection.

Also, a cute mouse isn’t a must, but how could you not love this fuzzy blue one?

Paper clips - Instead of plain silver ones, clip important papers together with hearts, circles, or these adorable little animals! A lot of craft/gift shops (Hallmark, for example) sell unique clips. Nothing makes a 30 page paper look better than a cute little pig.

Maybe by now you’re thinking, “OK, only a whack job would waste their money on this pointless crap,” but the whole point is to express yourself! Buy school supplies that are going to motivate you and express who you are. Maybe you’ll use them to bring some humor to that stressful study group, or as an icebreaker with the people sitting next to you in class. And if you already spent all your money on posters, you could always decorate your own stuff (if you’re into that kind of thing).

Good luck this year and happy back to school shopping!