11

I want to be 11 so bad most of the time. When I was 11 I would be filled with amazing joy whenever I went to the library. I would check out full house chapter books, Harry Potter, Series of Unfortunate events, creepy ghost stories, the boys against girls books, the alice books, and a plethora of more magical tween chapter book series. Sometimes I would go out of the paperback world and try something more mature, like a BIG chapter book with smaller words. And these were just wonderful. But I needed both stupid and quality. Well, they were both high quality to me in their different and special ways. I wasn't afraid to get a pile up to my chin. The more the absolute better. As well as Humongous Entertainment Computer games and maybe if I was lucky Sims 2, The Oregon Trail, Opening Night, or a Nancy Drew game. This was so enough for me. This was treasure.

When I got home, I had hours and hours of entertainment that I would store in my room. My bookshelf had a special place for my library books, and the books would have their own little large chunk. Then I had the pleasure of deciding which book I would read first, which was so difficult! Because they all looked so amazing. So I would pick the first three books, and set them on top of the shelf by my bed, next to my glasses case, lamp, and HIS Kids Radio. My room made the atmosphere even better. I had a bunk bed and I had the bottom bunk, which meant that I could store my books in the top bunk supporters. Sometimes I would put 8 books up there, in order of when I wanted to read them. I would just read. All the time. And it was the best if I had a sucker or something too. Double happiness! And the best reading experiences of all were at night, when I would stay up and it was just me and the book and I just kept on reading and I would plow through my books. Sometimes I would get a whole book read in just one night! I felt so awesome.

Then when my head would get tired from reading I would reorganize my room, which was already really cooly orgainized. Or I would take out my clothes and fold them and organize my clothes or I would go into my closet and take out my Pollys and do a whole setup and make a really intense plot line and get really into it. And I loved playing with my sister too. Although I was pretty awful at times because I made her trade clothes with me and did really awful trades and soon enough I pretty much had all her clothes. ehhh… We would turn on the HIS Kids radio when we were playing. Or I'd pop in my Jump5 or Michael W. Smith CD. Then I would play outside with the neighbor kids and the grass and outside always smelled awesome and then I would get dirty. When I took baths I would bring my Pollys or Barbies with me and get really raisiny and make up a REALLY complicated and awesome plot line and get really into it and it usually involved someone almost drowning!!! And I loved the Suave shampoo and conditioner becasuse there were so many cool scents and they always smelled so good, even though they didn't work that well.

Then I would play the computer games that I got from the library and get really really really into it and feel intensely happy the entire time. And sometimes my siblings would watch me and get really into it too.

Sometimes I would check out a VHS at the library and we would get to watch it on the weekend. Sometimes it was a disney cartoon movie, sometimes it was 4 arthur episodes, sometimes it was something really really dumb with discussion questions on the back but not really dumb because it was sooo COOL! But we also owned some VHS tapes. The only disney movies we owned were the Lion King and the Lion King 2, which I watched religiously. But I would get little kid depression when I watched The Lion King. Legitimately. For a time, we owned the Return of Jafar, which my siblings watched everyday. My mom disposed of it for this reason. We also owned the Sound of Music and The Lion, The Witch, and the Wardrobe BBC version. These movies came with TWO VHS tapes. We also owned a bunch of kid 30 minute movies. These were incredible.

And sometimes I would go to the Zoo or the Downtown Museum, or a bike ride and I can't even explain how happy I was during these times. And then we would go on family vacations. But that's so much and deserves another post entirely.

I am obsessed with my childhood. If I have kids I want to give them the equivalent or more of this happiness.