Zack and Cody,” “Spy Kids,” Shrek,” “Tangled,” “iCarly”: you name it, we’ve watched it all growing up. Every show and movie giving us crazy nostalgia, especially around this time of year. Through all the adventure, we learned how to live the ‘suite life’, we’re still looking for our left shoe on the roof, and I for one, still listen to the soundtrack from “Madagascar.”

We all had our favorite shows growing up and love to joke about how we can tell who was allowed to watch “Spongebob” as a kid and who wasn’t, or what your favorite Disney Princess says about you. I still take quizzes like “which Scooby Doo character are you?” and brag about “having the same personality type as Jack Sparrow.” It’s all in good fun though because there’s no way we can be defined by one made-up character.

The most common childhood tv shows and movies had a lot of adventure in them. Finding Nemo, Jurassic Park, Diary of a Wimpy Kid (preferably Rodrick Rules, because he does.) A lot of it was about leaving and ending up in new situations. Getting out of your comfort zone, which can really relate to what we’re doing now. Leaving such a familiar environment, leaving a lot of what we know and who we know. Spreading across the world and who knows, maybe we will see dinosaurs or start a band while wearing way too much eyeliner. 

There were a lot of emotional movies too–anybody who is anybody will still cry to the opening of Up or is still scarred from the button eyes in Coraline. Might just be me, but there has to be some movie or TV show from your childhood that still resonates with you or that you and your siblings still quote from time to time. 

In a lot of ways, these shows set us up for the future. We learned the importance of helping others in need. We learned what it means to care and be considerate of others. We learned that a TV being pulled out in the middle of our 3rd grade class meant Bill Nye or Ms. Frizzle would save us from another boring lesson about fractions. Most importantly though, we learned how to “move it, move it” like the king of all lemurs and really anybody born between the years 2000 and 2012. Now would be a great time to get together with friends or family and rewatch all your favorite childhood TV shows and movies. To reminisce on all the good times before we all leave and go out into the real world, still we know that they will always be there with us and there for us to look back on.