When we were young.

I’ve spent way too much time recently on my new favorite website, Forever Young.  Seriously, it makes me feel like so much less of a creep for still counting My So Called Life amongst other teen dramas as top faves (cough, Buffy, cough). D has been giving my some serious slack for watching The Lying Game (O.M.G.!) and Awkward.  I mean that’s not even the tip of the iceberg of crappy television that I enjoy, but in the teenage television category – these are my weekly regulars.  Let’s not even mention the fact that my favorite teenage author of my LIFE (we’re talking – preorder books at the local bookstore for EVERY book she penned – which I still have, and must be vintage ha. ha.) has TWO television shows now (The Secret Circle and The Vampire Diaries – which I do not watch).

Seriously, before I was a teen, I was a tween.  Except as a tween in the 90’s we didn’t quite have the same television options as we  tweens/teens do now.  Most of the time I was living in the literary tween-sphere anyhow. But a few did exist and influence my perception of reality.

The first show to ever influence my life in a major way was Clarissa Explains It All.  Come on, SNICK!

First and foremost, Clarissa made me very envious of the fact that she had a boy as a best friend.  From here on out, her and Alex Mack made me feel like my life was seriously lacking for lack of a boy BFF.  Thanks Nickelodeon. Eventually my best friend was a boy in high school but when you are 12 and want to be Clarissa you want what she has now dammit. 

The next thing on the Clarissa covet list is of course, the window seat. Of course. In fact I had my parents build me one the year I left for college, but by then it was too late.  I had already lost my formative window sitting years, but I least I could cross that one off the list too. To me, that was at the top of the Clarissa’s cool list. Followed closely by….

That goddamn computer. Sure she had cool clothes and wispy bangs, but what I was really after was that computer. I want to draw boxes in the air in neon colors and make video games with my head on the players and draw up elaborate plans.  NOT. FAIR. This was way way before I could even imagine having a computer, let alone my very own. And now that I can afford my very own, I still can’t make video games with my body in them and draw pictures in the air. So this totally is not off the list.

So to sum it all up, what did Clarissa teach me? Envy. At a very young age. I can not even bare imagining coveting things that teen stars flaunt on their shows nowadays, because computers and window seats are so not even on the top 100 things teens desire I’m sure. And clearly while other children may have revered her unique style and personality, I obviously was far more materialistic in my desires. Windows and computers. Fundamentally, I’m not sure anything important within me has changed in the past 15 years.

And don’t even get me started on how I can’t levitate things by squinting my eyes and pointing my finger. That’s for another day.