College is fun… okay, let me rephrase that: college can be fun. There’s parties, getting to decorate your own dorm, taking classes never, ever offered in high school, and tons of other new, exciting possibilities! And you can explore them all, once you’re done writing dozens of research papers, balancing a job and school, and wondering if there’s a limit to how much ramen one human being can eat in a year. 

College, like I said, can be fun, but it can also be hard. 

Man, I miss elementary school. 

Always having a ride thanks to the school bus, recess, getting a lunch made of food besides ramen noodles, recess, fun parties to celebrate the holidays, and did I mention recess? Yeah, elementary school is heaven on earth, but you only realize that once it’s long gone.

Personally, my favorite elementary school memory was storytime, because unlike in college, where the average English assignment is having to read Moby-Dick in a week and write an analysis half the size of the novel over the weekend, kids are actually allowed to enjoy the books they read in school. 

That’s why I believe many of the characters in books we discover as kids make as lasting an impact, or even moreso, than the ones we discover as adults. In fact, the character you loved and identified with the most often had a lot to say about the kind of childhood you had. 

Loved Angelina Ballerina? You were a girly girl through and through, and definitely took at least one ballet class. More of a Pippi Longstocking type? You were young (literally), wild, and free. Was Hermione Granger your main gal? You’re an average human being, congratulations. 

And those are just the first few examples. 

Table of Contents

Madeline

From: “Madeline” by Ludwig Bemelmans 

In an old house in Paris covered in vines, there lived a crazy-cool girl named Madeline. Just because this red-headed wonder was pint-sized doesn’t mean she wasn’t a powerhouse, and if you admired Madeline when you were just as petite, you were undoubtedly a natural leader and queen of the playground.