Looking Back on Childhood

I might be a little bit premature on writing this--as of right now, June 12, 2018, I am a month shy of being twenty-one years old. In the grand scheme of things, I'm still basically a child. I've only been paying taxes for a few years, I only have a high school diploma, and I can't legally get shitfaced yet. But I do have a job, and student loans, and a balanced checkbook. So I can reminisce if I want. 

Lately, I want to say in the past five or six months, I've been enamored with things that were popular when I was younger. The band 3OH!3 crash-landed back into my life, and WANT is still my current car-CD. Recently I was just hit with how influential The Lonely Island was on 2009-era culture, and, man, did "Jizz in My Pants" give me seventh-grade flashbacks. Also now I'm in love with Andy Samburg. Not because of that song. Mostly because of Brooklyn-99. 

but let's be real also the music. bin laden song is a thing of FUCKING beauty

In addition to that, I've been getting back into David Spade movies. I binge-watched a good bit of Rules of Engagement. I watched Tommy Boy and Black Sheep and re-watched The Benchwarmers, which was my favorite movie when I was eight. David Spade was my first celebrity crush, and it was 100% because of The Benchwarmers. Not even his movies with Chris Farley, when he was still kind of cute. Nope. 8-year-old-Aurora wasn't into that. But anyway--that's just another example of me trying to hold onto my childhood.

Now it's come another step farther, I guess, because I started re-reading the Warriors books. These are books about fictional cats, and I devoured the first three series + an amount of the super editions/extra things/mangas when I was a child. And I'm like, a little happy but also a little freaked to discover that I still love them, and that they're still extremely addictive. So I'm re-reading those. 

But it's not just media. It hasn't been summer long, and I haven't been home a lot of the time, but I just know that when I have a day off, I'm going to be outside, trying to hold onto whatever I have left of my childhood. Because I'm going to be a senior in college this coming year. I'm going to graduate. And this is my last real summer at home. I might stick around next summer, but likely, as soon as I find an apartment in town, I'm going to be moving out. So this is my last shot to be a kid, even though I'm really not anymore. And even if it's just on a subconscious level, my brain is freaking out about this and attaching me to all of these childlike things.. Which is like, all right, not gonna complain about it--these things still bring me joy.

Now, if you'll excuse me, I've got to go read some more of Rising Storm.