Do you remember that awful moment when your parents sat you down to tell you that Santa isn’t real? Don’t worry if you didn’t have that moment — I didn’t either considering the fact that I’m Jewish — but a lot of those types of situations happened when I was younger. You see, before all this high school stuff happened, I had a different view of the world. A simple, innocent view. But the more I began to experience things, the more I began to realize how wrong some of those views were, even if it was just some of the small things in life. Here are some of the thoughts I had as a child that I only realized were wrong through growing up.

1. When I was younger, I had an endless amount of energy. I would be bouncing off the walls, running around in circles chasing my nonexistent tail, and when I got home from school, I’d ride my bike at least ten times around the block. Back then, I thought energy was endless and sleep was an unnecessary waste of time. Now, the moment I get home I fall into my bed and sleep for at least two hours. Sleep used to be the enemy and now, it’s my best friend.

2. Okay, I know I’m not alone on this one. When I was younger, I always used to use the “no tears” shampoo put out for kids. Well, I always thought it meant no tears, as in, if you get it in your eyes, it won’t burn. Boy, was I far off on this one. Apparently it means no tears as in your hair not ripping or knotting up from it because whenever I got it in my eyes (which was every single shower) my eyes felt like they were going to burn out of my sockets. This is one of those things that you can only learn from experience… or better reading skills.

3. This one is going to sound kind of ridiculous, but when I was younger I used to think that popcorn was covered in cheese. Butter… cheese… basically the same thing, right?

4. The first snow fall was always so exciting when I was a child. I loved dressing up in my snow gear, making snow angels and forts, and of course, getting hot chocolate after. When I was younger, I thought snow was a magical thing. And then, I started driving. Driving changes your view on basically every single type of weather, especially snow. Not only do you have to take out ten minutes of your morning schedule to warm up your car and freeze your butt while scrapping ice off every single window, but you actually have to drive in it. The worst way to start your morning is  driving to school, slipping all over the place and getting mini heart attacks from random sheets of ice you drive over. For those of you who say you like snow, you obviously don’t have your license yet.

5. When I was younger, I used to always play that game during recess where a boy tags you and you have to stay frozen since they have cooties. And, to be honest, this probably shouldn’t even be on the list because boys definitely still have cooties. But, age did help me learn that every time a boy touches you, you don’t have to freeze in place.

6. When I was younger, I used to be one of those kids that would go up to their teacher before they went on a vacation for some worksheets that I could do “for fun.” I loved school, and although I still do, the part of school I loved most was homework. I absolutely loved going home and completing all the worksheets or projects that were assigned to me. As I grew older, all those feelings began to disappear. Homework became the worst part of school, besides waking up early. And now, especially with senioritis in full swing, I procrastinate all my homework until the very last possible second which is not a very enjoyable experience.

7. And lastly, when I was younger, one of my biggest fears was going up the stairs in my house. It sounds like a really stupid fear, but do you ever have that feeling that someone is chasing you when you run up the stairs? I always had that feeling and the only thing that really got me through the night was not only my nightlight, but the thought that when I got older, I was going to have no fears. I thought that all older kids grew out of every single fear, and that they weren’t scared of anything. This is completely untrue because I still sprint as fast as possible up the stairs from some invisible scary thing chasing me.

It’s really interesting to look back at your childhood and seeing how different your thoughts were then, compared to now. Although many of you probably never thought that there was cheese instead of butter on popcorn, I think the types of perceptions we had as kids is hilarious.