Tag: childhood

Rating my Childhood Obsessions pt.2

~ Brooke F. ~ 6 Comments

And here we have it folks! The sequel that everyone saw coming because clearly I cannot cram all my childhood obsessions into one singular post! (There were far too many.) I didn’t know I had so many phases that I grew through but the more I thought about it, the more obsessions I found myself recalling. A red flag of mine? Or perhaps a loveable quirk? Who knows! We don’t have time to unpack now as I need to get on with ranking my various childhood obsessions, part two!

1. Pirates

This was a brief one but it still shows itself even to this day through my love of white, puffy sleeved shirts. Despite this phase not lasting incredibly long, I still find it entirely understandable. The hats. The cutlasses. The gold. The SHIPS. THE FREAKING SHIPS. I remember spending way too much of my spare time sketching pirate ship designs because of this.

I don’t think this obsession was spawned by one singular franchise or piece of media though Pirates of the Caribbean and The Voyage of the Dawn Treader probably aided this fantasy. To this day if someone told me I could make a living by sailing the high seas, wearing magnificent hats, sword fighting, (but not getting scurvy) I would. Alas, I think my fantasies are somewhat unrealistic however that has never stopped me!

Someday I wish to dedicate an entire post to the appeal of pirate costume-ry and fashion however, this is not that day. Instead, have a mood board.

2. Rise of the Guardians

Another brief but still instrumental obsession of my former high school years. This movie was integral for sparking my passion for animation and animated movies. Not to the degree of wanting to make a career by working in such a field, however I did enjoy spending my days design Guardian OC’s because they were just too much fun to create. The whole concept of the movie was ripe pickings for the young imagination. The characters were bright and interesting, the story compelling but never lacking an air of mystery. It was a bit of a tragedy when I found out later in life that this movie had been a box-office failure for Dreamworks, practically ensuring that it would never release a sequel. *weeps*

However, despite the fact that the movie did not make a lot of money at the box office, I still believe it is well-worth a watch and it remains to have, I believe, some of the most shockingly beautiful CGI animation that I have ever seen to date. High school me had good taste.

3. Avatar the Last Airbender

Gosh, I love this show. And yes, it still holds up, even to this day. Even as an 11 year old girl, I could appreciate the amazing and surprisingly mature writing in this show. The jokes almost always landed, the characters felt grounded and real, and I probably don’t have to tell you that it contains one of the most well executed character arcs I have ever seen executed on screen. If you grew up in the 2000’s, you probably have heard people sing this show’s praises. Heck, you might have even heard people sing them recently. It’s a darn good show. However, I was never really a big fan of the sequel show, Legend of Korra. That was a little…disappointing. (It’s hard to follow up greatness you know?)

I still love this show. Even now I like mentally classifying my friends into groups .

“oh they’d totally be a firebender. And so and so gives water bender vibes. And so and so seems like an earthbender and…”

4. Libraries

Okay, hear me out. When I was like, 9, I was convinced my family needed to convert the loft of our barn into a library. My parents, for some strange reason, didn’t agree with me. So I set about doing it myself. I began to author books (stories where the papers were stapled together) and scrolls to fill my “new” library and arranging them neatly into boxes. My heart was all but broken when I found out the paper attracted bugs (specifically spiders) and my dreams of a giant library in the loft of our hay barn were crushed.

This little scheme of mine was a symptom of an obsession that I think a lot of us have. This obsession shows itself when we walk into a library (the older, the better), and want to squeal at the sheer size of it. This is the part of us that loves marble floors and old architecture and the smell of old paper. This is also the part of us that gets strangely angry when we remember that the library of Alexandria was burnt to the ground.

Did I lose anybody? I hope I’m not alone but something tells me I’m not.

5. Wizards

Did you ever wish you could just start fires with your mind? Or flip a light switch from across the room? Or make something levitate for no real reason? Well you know what would fix these very common problems? MAGIC.

Ladies and gents, I have this theory that like 75% of the population just wants to be wizards and I am one of those people. This desire to be a wizard shows itself in different ways. A Harry Potter phase. A time in your life where you took horoscopes way too seriously. Or even a super hero phase (because after all, aren’t super heroes just specialized wizards in leather suits?). Or trying to use the force to shut a door from across the room.

We all just wanna be wizards, don’t we? I think it’s time we face it. Who doesn’t love starry patterns, pointy hats, cloaks, shiny and potentially magical rocks (THAT MAY OR MAY NOT HAVE BEEN ITS OWN PHASE. WHY AM I LIKE THIS), wands, staffs, towards away from everybody you hate… the superior lifestyle, clearly.

And yeah. I think that’ll do it. I really don’t know how to wrap up with post except for simply stating that your childhood self is nearly always right. Magic is still cool. Dragons are still the best. Webkinz is still fun. Pirate hats still look like the absolute bomb. Don’t let anyone tell you otherwise. Life is too short not to believe in these things anymore. Hmm… I think my pal C.S. Lewis had a quote for that actually…

“When I was ten, I read fairy tales in secret and would have been ashamed if I had been found doing so. Now that I am fifty I read them openly. When I became a man I put away childish things, including the fear of childishness and the desire to be very grown up.

C.S. Lewis

Good ‘ol Lewis. He has a quote for everything.

And that’s it! Have a wonderful day and stay young my friends!

Rating My Childhood Obsessions

~ Brooke F. ~ 8 Comments

The title tells it all. I’m gonna do this on a 1-10 scale. This is 100% a whim but I figured it make a fun post. I am such a huge sucker for nostalgia and, when going through this list, I found that I still have a very warm place in my heart for all these things. For context, I was born in 2002 and, consequently, was raised in this weird era where I wasn’t quiiiite a 90’s kid but I still, largely, enjoyed 90’s kids trends. It’s a weird mix.

1. Horses

Or, more specifically, magical ones. I wasn’t quite a weird horse girl but I still greatly enjoyed wasting hours playing a horse themed trading card game called “Bella Sara”. Anyone remember that? The site has long since shut down but I ADORED this game and still have some of the trading cards to this day.

My horse love grew when I eventually came to own one. I live on a farm and when I was about 10 or so, my parents bought me and my sister a few horses. This hobby was something I greatly enjoyed however my favorite horse, Abby, died under not so unpleasant circumstances (she was an older horse and had some health problems as a result). This didn’t entirely ruin my love of horses but I think my horse phase really diminished after that.

I didn’t mean to dampen the mood….sorry. Here’s a Bella Sara mood board to lighten it!

But let’s not forget the rating! I’d still give this childhood obsession a 8/10 despite the traumatic horse death though that does bring it down a point.

2. Webkinz

Okay, full disclosure, I definitely have Webkinz installed on my laptop. It’s like the only other thing I use it for besides writing and college homework. This game has stood the test of time. It’s so much fun to play with my virtual pets and still enjoy a sweet air of nostalgia. The plush pets that this company sold were super cute too and I still have a lot of mine from my former years. Spoiler alert, this one is going to get a near perfect rating because I STILL enjoy it to this day. This obsession was entirely understandable. Webkinz is so charming, even now, years down the road!

This obsession obviously gets a 10/10 rating. Go play Webkinz right now, I dare you.

3. Fairies

Disney fairies especially. This obsession began when I got “The Tinkerbell Movie” for Christmas. These movies were so magical, my grade school self couldn’t help but admire them. I instantly wished I was a fairy and went about collecting tiny little fairy figurines. I would arrange these and play with them in my own little “Pixie Hollow” for hours on end. I still have this figurines in my closet, carefully tucked away as they are some of my most valuable possesions.

And since it seems to be an ongoing theme that these obsessions would be further kindled by online games, this obsession was no different. There was a little Disney Fairy themed MMO called Disney Fairies where you could create your own fairy, pick your talent, fly around and play games, and decorate your own house. It was an absolute tragedy when the site eventually shut down.

This obsession might be one of my favorites even if it hasn’t exactly stood the test of time as the franchise has been winding down the past couple of years. They stopped making movies and with the shut down of the website, I find it an awful shame that all that is left of this joy of mine are my little figurines which are definitely not manufactured anymore.

9/10. It was gone way too soon. You will be missed Disney Fairies.

4. The Chronicles of Narnia

Ahhhh… such a classic. I loved these books. Though I’d be lying if I told you the books were my introduction to “The Chronicles of Narnia”. It was but the Disney Movie “The Lion, The Witch, and The Wardrobe” that captured my 7 year old heart. I wanted to be Lucy soooo badly. I wanted to stumble into a wardrobe and find a magical world where animals could talk. I wanted to fight in battles and go exploring and eat Turkish Delight (even though in real life, it’s actually not that good? The Narnian stuff must be something different because I swear it looked delicious in this movie).

It was such a shame when they stopped making the Narnia Movies. Despite not exactly being true to the books, I GREATLY enjoyed Prince Caspian and Voyage of the Dawn Treader though I was much older when these movies came out. Though if I’m being entirely honest, at age 20, I still want to find a magical world in a closet.

Maybe someday I’ll dedicate a whole post to these movies. They really deserve it. But, until then, I’ll just have to leave this childhood obsession with the rating of 10/10. Still a classic. Read the books. Watch the movies. Cry about your childhood lost.

5. DRAGONS

Alright, so originally that was going to be where I was going to end this post. But then I recalled a memory. A deep memory….

DRAGONS.

This was a relatively shorter phase than any of the others listed but it definitely still existed. I can’t exactly tell you how this obsession started but I think it was definitely punctuated by the books in the series called “The Dragon Codices”. Overall, this phase consisted of me wanting to find a dragon egg, hatch it, and ride it around How to Train your Dragon Style. I also drew a lot of dragon pictures. I mean, a lot.

I would rank this phase a solid 7/10. It’s lower than the others because it was so short-lived but I still enjoyed the world of dragons greatly. And I definitely wouldn’t say “no” to any merchant who offered my a dragon’s egg.

And there! I think we’ve covered the bulk of my childhood obsessions… *thinks for 10 seconds more* okay, that’s a lie. We still haven’t covered my Lord of the Rings phase or my Wizard phase (WIZARD phase. NOT Harry Potter, I must iterate). And there was my mini phase where I made Rise of the Guardian OC’s… ugh, cringe. Okay, I was lying. We’re not done. But I need to go eat supper so I think that will do it for today. Definitely be warned though… a part 2 may be in the future…. beware traveler. Beware.

Nostalgia Is Wrong

~ Brooke F. ~ Leave a comment

The good old days are not a phase in life in which things magically are perfect. It’s something you’re actively doing and creating as you live each day.  Last week could have been the good old days if you lived them to the fullest. This last weekend even. Your life can be comprised of thousands upon thousands of “good ol’ days” but not if you continue to spend your life reminiscing of a time you thought things were perfect. The Good ol Days are now. The sooner you learn that nostalgia is a dirty rotten liar who insists things were better than they actually were, the better off you’ll be.