Can I Be 12 Again?

So, I have a bunch of old cartoons in my Netflix queue in an attempt to relive my youth. Today I woke up and decided to watch The Super Mario Bros Super Show. It was everything I imagined it to be. Late 80’s/Early 90’s tackiness mixed in with an endearing innocence. Times were so simple back then. Watching it now, it’s nostalgic, but the experience feels tainted in some way—contaminated by life. The innocence and simplicity that was experienced almost 20 years ago is gone, and instead, is replaced by a jadedness acquired by life. I sometimes wish I didn’t know the things I know or never experienced the things that have happened. I feel tainted—different. I can literally see myself back then. I can see me as I watched G.I. Joe and Sonic The Hedgehog before school in the morning in my uniform. I can remember the walk to the corner to get to the bus. I can remember Mike the bus driver. I can remember looking out the window at the sky as the sun slowly lit it up and wondering why the kid two blocks away was taking so long to get out of his house and onto the bus.
It seems like such a long time ago though. Like we saw it in a movie. Because since then, there have been so many things that have happened that it’s a wonder we can remember anything at all from two decades ago. Our biggest concern was getting home in time to watch afternoon cartoons and if our parents would let us have ice cream before dinner. I wish those innocent times lasted longer, or that we realized that we should’ve milked them for everything we could get. I don’t know about you, but I was in such a rush to grow up. I sometimes feel like I was born at 30 years old. Thank god I’m not as uptight as I used to be….true story. Ask my sister.