When you feel old, but it’s ok (an homage to the early 2000’s)

GUYS, I’m feeling like a grandma today.

Let me elaborate. On Tuesday night, MTV aired the 10 year anniversary special for The Hills, which I watched last night. As ridiculous as it may seem, that sent me into a major little bit of a spiral. Every so often, things pop up in my social feeds that make me feel older than I want to. And this was definitely one of them.

I remember three years ago when the O.C. had the same anniversary. It premiered in 2003, when I was at the height of my high school days and desperately wanted to move to California (can you even say that without singing it like Phantom Planet?) and find my own wrong-side-of-the-track bad boy like Ryan Atwood. Fast-forward ten years and I was still living in Canada, had bought a home with a super nice guy from the right-side-of-the-tracks and about to turn 25. It essentially spurred an intense quarter-century crisis…

Since then, R. Kelly’s Ignition (Remix) turned 10 (still listen to it constantly). Mean Girls turned 10 (can still quote it). I attended the Backstreet Boys 20th Anniversary Tour (knew every word). Now, the Hills is 10 too.

Thinking back, I can remember all of the times that I threw “Hills Viewing Parties” at my first apartment, when I was freshly 18. Not only had we binged watched Laguna Beach DVDs there, but you can bet that we were drinking fruity martinis (thanks Gatineau) and watching all the drama unfold between Lauren and Heidi. And as much as I feel ancient that all of these things I loved are over a decade old, it makes me happy to think back to all the reasons why those years were so special.

We got to burn mix CDs for ourselves and our friends. Is there anything better than finding a mix CD covered in sharpie from 2005? I think not. We got to see movies and listen to soundtracks like Garden State for the first time. We actually talked to each other on the phone (most likely using some sort of Motorolla RAZR). We supported the currently struggling body glitter industry (ok, maybe that one was a mistake). We spent hours on MSN (not Facebook, Instagram, Snapchat, etc.) As much as I love social media, I am so glad MSN was the extent of it during high school. And thanks to MSN we got to use song lyrics and emoticons (not emojis) to convey our passive aggressive or secret emotions to our friends list. And we got to set our status as “away” even when we were TOTALLY still there.

MOST IMPORTANTLY, THE MUSIC WAS FIRE. Amazing indie and emo tracks galore, but also…

50 Cent was in da club, where Lil Jon taught us how to get low. Justin Timberlake was bringing sexy back and Christina was just downright dirrty. Nelly was making things all hot in herre, Fat Joe was telling us to lean back and Queen Bey and Destiny’s Child were telling us it was ok to embrace those curves and be Bootylicious.

For those, and a million more reasons, I’m so glad that I got to live out my teens in the early 2000’s. In honour of that special time, a round up of some things that are sure to make you smile if you grew upin that magical era.

1. 12 Things That Are Turning 10 in 2016

2. 16 Reasons The Early 2000s Were The Best Time Ever

3. 60 Pictures That Perfectly Capture the 2000s (a personal favourite)

4. 74 Things You Totally Did As A Teenager in the 2000s

5. An Illustrated History of The Early 2000s Status Symbol

6. 25 Things You Loved from the 2000s – But Have Already Forgotten

Now if you’ll excuse me, I’m off to binge watch The O.C. for days. #sorrynotsorry