Remember When

Remember when?

Do you remember when 

When we were thinking about how old we would be

When we reached 5th grade?

How brave we thought they were? 

Remember the high schoolers

That used to come through our school,

The ones that painted our faces?

They seemed so free.

We wished we could be that age,

We wished we could say we were 8th graders

And now we wish we could go back

Back to those days,

When we took naps in school,

When the hardest task was a coloring page

When we loved math,

When our biggest worry was what we would play at recess. 

Remember when we looked up to our parents?

Never thinking twice when they told us to go to bed.

No arguments about grades or boys

Because grades were just letters

And boys were just our friends.

But now we fight

Bedtime is just a mild suggestion to me now

Arguments where the end is a battle with tears and anger

Grades are still just letters, but now they define us

And boys are something we feel we need

Everything from those few years,

The years of innocence and happiness

All of it is gone.

Remember when

We had our group of friends?

The friends we thought would be by our side forever

Now forever is just a word,

And the ones we called friends are now strangers

Remember when

We had our own small weddings 

On the playground,

With a cake made of woodchips and Cheetos

Out by the swings,

And we all giggled

Pretended to kiss 

When we hated bedtime 

Because we had to sleep

Sleep is our best friend now

Because we don't have to face the real world

When our worst nightmare 

Was about the monster under the bed

Now my worst nightmare is waking up

Because waking up means trying to live

In the true nightmare we call life

Remember when 

Because I do

It feels like a million years ago

When we were in preschool.

It feels like just yesterday

When we decided to grow up

And stopped remembering 

When