Friday, November 30, 2012

What was later referred to as "The Great Social Media Purge"

So I've been around for 22 years, right? Right. Sometimes it feels like a long time, and other times it feels like just yesterday that mom caught me sitting in the cupboard 
eating m&ms.
Wait. That was last week... Huh. Anyway.
I remember when pogs and nanopets were all the rage. I remember when I would beg to get on my dads laptop that had the click-in mouse just so I could "play paint" or solitaire. I remember when an exciting day consisted of stringing up my barbies between the branches of our walnut tree and having my brother's G.I. Joe's save them. I remember spending an afternoon burning our initials into the wooden frame of our sandbox in the backyard. I remember dividing our bedroom, I remember drawing on everything I could get my hands on, I remember cardboard box surfing down our stairs. I remember the huge dip in my best friend's driveway, and fishing for worms in"Lake Echols" after a big rain storm. I remember swimming in the most redneck swimming pool possible on a hot summer day, an old silo lined with all the heavy plastic our small town had. I remember riding our bikes to "The Hollow" and getting attacked by mosquitoes, and vowing to never go again, but going the next week because of the rope swing. I remember pretending to be a rock star on our electric piano because it had like 100 different sounds. I remember laying upside down on the couch in front of our giant front window and watching the snow fall. I remember we asking mom for grilled ham and cheese sandwiches for breakfast, because I could. I remember painting gramps and grans "Little House," and putting our handprints on the back door. I remember mom and gran kicking is out of the kitchen because they wanted to eat all the chocolate cookies. I remember crying that hershey's chocolate was unchanged since 1960 whatever, and "why can't we be like that?" when I found out we were moving. I remember lending my "My Little Pony" to my cousin, and the utter devestation I felt when I knew I'd never see them again. I remember the sound of bells everyday from the nearby campus. I remember feeding the neighbor dog "Shaka berries," because his name was Shaka and he loved those berries. I remember going to the cougar eat with gran and feeling so grown up around all those college students. I remember the year it snowed up to my waist and I wondered if we were going to get snowed in. I remember having sailboat races in the irrigation ditches. I remember getting to ride my horse for my 7th birthday at my.house instead of driving to see him and feeling like a princess. I remember making a worm farm, forgetting about it, and coming back to some very dry, very dead worms. Oops. I remember singing to myself in the mirror. I remember tetherball tournaments in my backyard. I remember writing books and poems and songs. I remember reading from the time the sun came up until my eyes burned I remember my childhood being ridiculously awesome.
Then I grew up.
Not to say my adult life hasn't been awesome, because it has. But all those things I used to do as a little kid... When did I stop doing that? And why? I can understand maybe not trying the worm farm again, but pretty much everything else, where's the rules that say you have to grow up and get boring?
So that's my mission this month. Be awesome again.
I wonder just how much of my life has been wasted on Facebook and Twitter and Instagram. Now, I don't necessarily think any of these is a complete waste of time, but I wonder how many better things I could be doing if I rid my life of these potential time wasters (and let's be honest, I really did waste a lot of time on them).
Whatever happened to drawing on everything I could get my hands on? Or singing to myself in the mirror? Well, I still so that... Or whatever happened to being a rockstar on the electric keyboard? Or going to the hollow for fun? Or laying upside down to watch snow fall?
I don't want to miss things in my life that I could be good at. I can draw, I can paint, I can sing, I can play the piano, I can write, I'm a great reader, I can do so many things that I don't do enough of! So I'm purging myself of social media as an experiment... just how much can I accomplish in my free time when I'm not filling it with Facebook and other social media?
Guess we'll see, loves. ;)
Here's to life. Because it's amazing. <3

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