Oh, how I loved (and hated) middle school. Today on twitter, #middleschoolmemories is a trending topic. I mainly thought of hard tail skirts and plastic bracelets as my #middleschoolmemories but there are some other ones that floating around that are very, very true. Week long relationships? Yes. The ban on heelys? Yes. Middle school seemed so long ago but reading all of these #middleschoolmemories tweets definitely makes me nostalgic for the times when everything was just so much easier.

Here’s the twenty #middleschoolmemories tweets that really stood out for me:

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Ashley is a freshman at George Washington University and she’s majoring in Overanalyzing Situations and International Affairs. Follow her on twitter @ashleybrooks25

There was a period of time in our childhoods when we were old enough to start thinking boys were cute, but not old enough to read Tiger Beat and fawn over the shirtless foldouts of Leonardo DiCaprio. During this time, we developed crushes on the characters from our favorite cartoons.

Let’s look back on out favorite cartoon cuties from the 90′s…

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Doesn’t growing up suck?

It’s like when I turned 21, I had reached the point in my life where I stopped telling everyone that I couldn’t wait to grow up, and instead started looking for ways to roll the clock back on my years.

The holidays only make it worse for me. Instead of screaming from excitement because Santa brought me the Polly Pocket that I wanted, I now stare into the pit of my stocking where my mom put socks for me. Socks. The worst part of it all? I asked her to get me socks. Because I needed them. Because when you get old, practicality trumps pretend.

If you’re feeling a little down in the dumps about your age these days, don’t worry, it’s just seasonal depression. But seriously, with the holidays rolling in and your Christmas list looking a little slim, there’s nothing that’ll make you feel as young as a trip down memory lane with snapshots of the exciting, play-pretend kid you used to be.

So, go on, put your feet up on the table – because you’re the only grownup in the room that cares – and while you’re at it, pour yourself a big glass of wine. Because if you’ve got to be old, you might as well be old and buzzed.

Am I right or am I right?

As kids, we were constantly being taught right from wrong by our parents. Growing up, we knew that we had to clean up after ourselves, always say “please” and “thank you,” and not to talk to strangers. But how many of these lessons did we forget after elementary school? Somewhere between adolescence and teenagedom we got rid of our childhood lessons in order to make room for Cosmo knowledge. But there are key lessons we learned as youngsters that we should bring back into our lives now.

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Whenever I babysit, I can’t help but be surprised by what kids play with these days. They have so many Hannah Montana dolls, Angry Birds figurines, and other “so-right-now” toys that I don’t even recognize. So many of toys from when we were young would be completely unidentifiable to kids these days.

Let’s take a walk down memory lane to reminisce over our childhood favorites.

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If I could go to a Bat Mitzvah every weekend for the rest of my life, I would. Those were the glory days. Personalized everything, sundae bars, extremely awful DJs, and everyone in their pubescent splendor.

You remember: it’s 7th grade. You have braces. Low by Lil John is playing and you’re doing your best imitation of Beyonce in the Crazy In Love music video. You’re most likely wearing a fold over skirt and Tiffany’s bracelet (imitation or real). Suddenly Low finishes and Heaven by DJ Sammy, Candlelight Mix, comes on. Everyone’s pairing off to awkwardly sway with one another, about three feet apart. But suddenly you notice there’s no line for the photo booth and it’s either now or never. This dilemma was a weekly thing in middle school.

Let us now reflect the best part of the mitzvahs, the favors.

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Every year older brings new privileges. The obvious perks are voting, drinking, growing boobs and losing our curfews.  However, with these new privileges consequently comes the loss of old privileges. There were many things we took for granted as kids that cause us to look back on our carefree lives and think “I wish I was a kid again.” The obvious childish perks that have left our daily schedules are things like homework and nap time, but here are six more things that we once had as kids but wish we had now.

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With all the reading we’re assigned in our college course load, it’s hard to remember a time when reading was for fun. As kids, we were given the freedom to chose what book we wanted to write a report on.

Now, not only are we rarely assigned fiction books, we’re forced to read essays, and speeches, and scientific reports. But if you remember far back enough, you’ll remember a time when you were excited to get to the next chapter of your book. A time when you were disappointed to put away your book for lights out. A time when every book had a cute love interest. Take a break from whatever dry, small-print reading you’re doing to look back on the books you actually enjoyed.

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Being an adult requires that you stop doing certain practices from your childhood. College requires you to be dependent, so waiting half a semester to bring your laundry home for your mom to wash isn’t going to cut it. The silver lining is we can now vote and (look old enough to) buy alcohol, but it still sucks that we’re too grown up for our moms to make our ponytails, we’re too old to order off the vastly less expensive kid’s menu, and we have too much homework for 9 o’clock to be our bedtime. However, there are the childish habits that we stopped doing sometime during puberty that we shouldn’t have discontinued. We’re not girls, but we’re not yet women, so go crazy with the nail art before you’re really a grown up.

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Every month, Disney Channel would grace our televisions with a new original movie. Looking back at them, the plots were totally random, the love interests weren’t that cute, and the dialogue was unintentionally hilarious. However, month after month Disney Channel Original movies were the highlight of my Friday night. Kristen Storms, Ryan Merriman, and Brenda Song may have all moved on from Disney Channel, but their made-for-TV movies are forever. (Editor note: Brenda Song REALLY moved on…)  Set aside time for a movie marathon and join us as we recap our favorite Disney Channel Original Movies.

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