Golden Days

Around the Holiday season and New Year, I always get extremely nostalgic. As I cuddle my

worn in winnie the pooh teddy bear and lay in my childhood twin bed, there is a magic in the air that takes me on a meloncollie journey down memory lane. Like many families, my parents divorced when I was in 6th grade. Since then, I haven’t really looked back very much on some of these memories, but not because they were necessarily bad, but my method of coping involved lots and lots of erasing and ignoring my past (which isn’t very healthy).

I wanted to share with you today (as best as I can) some of my most treasured experiences as a kid. To start I’d like to travel back to my favorite Christmas. I think I was 4 or 5 years old at the time and I was living in a one story house with my whole family (two sisters and my parents). We all wore matching plaid nightgowns and my mom made us pancakes drowning in maple syrup. Me and my younger sister got a barbie pink play kitchen, cabbage patch kids, a plush cheer care bear that smelled like strawberries, and matching star wars light sabers. It was probably 5:00 am because it was still dark out and the way the string lights glowed on the tree will always stay ingrained in my memory.

Some more experiences that I hold dear to my heart come from the sweaty, dog days of summer as a child in my suburban town house. My sisters and I spent our summers orchestrating puppet shows, doing makeovers with glitter makeup kits we got from limited too/justice, swimming in our slip and slide/blow up pool, watching movies, and listening to Britney Spears CDs. Also, I used to be obsessed with Hannah Montana, so I made up imaginary bands that I actually thought would “make it big” and wrote songs in my cupcake shaped journel (one of which, I kid you not, was about how much I loved puppies). I kept my collection of lip smackers in my mini-purse at all times and I day dreamed about one day living in a huge white mansion in Malibu, California (specifically with peach colored doors and carpets) and a pink cadillac convertible. I listened to the top 100 pop charts in my parent’s car and ate pb and j virtually every day. The fog of innocence is truly remarkable and I’m so grateful for the childhood that I had (thanks to my mom’s girl scout leader skills and my inability to stay inside for more than an hour of two).

I surely have changed a lot since my blissful childhood and awkward pre-teen years. My music taste was more bubbly, pop hits rather than sombrous, Simon and Garfunkel poetry. My favorite movies were more cheesy, kid flicks rather than allegorical David Lynch and Alfred Hitchcock films. Nonetheless, we all have to start somewhere in life and I think it’s crucial that we all take a long look at how far we’ve come, in regards to interests, intelligence, maturity, and spirituality. One of my biggest flaws as a kid, like many, was my ignorance. While seeing the world through a small lens can be simple and easy, seeing society as it really is and being a critical consumer is more important. Enjoy remembering those golden days and have fun in your life now, as it is. Becoming an adult might not seem that great, but that freedom will allow you to blossom into the person you were born to be. Dream as if you were a child, but don’t be afraid to grow up (there is so much to live for, so why not be in the present?) Sending lots of love and good fortune to all of you in 2017!

XOXO

Kaitlyn

Here are some of my favorite NOSTALGIC movies and songs from my childhood that transport me back to a specific time in my life.

Hope you enjoy!

Movies

Confessions of a Teenage Drama Queen (2004) dir. Sara Sugarman

The Lizzie Mcguire Movie (2003) dir. Jim Fall

13 Going On 30 (2004) dir. Gary Winick

The Cheetah Girls (2003) dir. Oz Scott

Another Cinderella Story (2008) dir. Damon Santostefano

School of Rock (2003) dir. Richard Linklater

Cheaper By The Dozen (2003) dir. Shawn Levy