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