As I’m nearing the end of my final semester of university, I can only think about the privileges I had as a kid. It was the feeling of waking up on a Saturday with no plans on the calendar except to enjoy life for its finer things. I’d roll out of bed, pulling my blanket along to use as a cape. As I headed downstairs, I’d skip a step before I reached the kitchen to serve myself a large bowl of cereal. If I was lucky, my parents would have already gotten up to prepare crepes and fruit for me. Once breakfast was prepared, the main event would come- the act of sitting in front of the television for prime creative content indulgence.
Now the options for me were limited; my parents were not the biggest fans of certain television shows. But as long as I adjusted the controls to my little hands, then I could flip between channels as I saw fit. The range between PBS Kids to Cartoon Network to Disney Channel was incredible, and each channel created a few shows that have a special place in my heart. Each show was meticulously crafted with its own lessons and no matter how long its been, I still think they have a heavy influence on my continuous growth today.
In honor of my childhood nostalgia floating up again, here are the top lessons I gained from some of my favorite childhood shows. A fair pre-warning: I can only put so many recommendations here. There are many more I would recommend if I could, but these are the biggest lessons I took away, in no particular order:
Disney Channel:
- That’s So Raven: The Power of Being Unique
- For those that don’t know, this was a show about Raven, a high school girl who can see glimpses of the future. As any person would do, she attempts to ensure that whatever she’s seen will or will not happen
- I was a very fly-on-the-wall kind of person when I was growing up. Attention was the last thing I wanted to attract, but because of this, I ended up not discovering something very important- individuality. I was a huge follower of the crowd, which constantly made me feel like I was being left behind. But watching Raven create a persona for herself in each episode made me love the idea of being my own person. Her personality seeped through her style and surrounded her friends and family in nothing but love.
- Lesson Learned in Episode: Clothes Minded (Season 2, Episode 6)
- Wizards of Waverly Place: Ask for Help
- For those that don’t know, this was a show about a family of wizards who attempt to grow their powers while also living normal lives. Justin, Alex and Max get themselves into crazy situations while living with the normal teenage challenges life presents them with.
- Growing up, I’d rather struggle and find my own solution than ask for help. But it landed me in some uncomfortable situations where I really needed assistance but didn’t ask for any. Watching Alex struggle with the same issue slowly made me feel a lot more comfortable with the idea of attempting to ask for help. Alex was an independent person who would prefer not to ask for help unless the situation screamed for it. But as the show went on, she began asking more people for help or advice to better her situation. While it started with her asking her brother for advice on solving a spell gone wrong, it went on to asking her parents for help controlling her powers or fixing a situation she had let go wildly wrong. Although it seems like the bare minimum, it’s still quite difficult for me to do, and I’m learning from her!
- Lesson Learned in Episode: (Season 1, Episode 17)
Disney XD:
- Lab Rats: Comparison Sucks
- For those that don’t know, this was a show about Leo (a normal teen) who moves into a new house with his mother and his inventor stepfather. Little does he know, the stepfather was building superhuman teens in his basement- Adam, Bree and Chase. After some convincing, they’ve all been given the chance to explore normal teenage life while also being their bionic powers under wraps.
- Seeing Leo get surrounded by friends who had the ultimate bionic powers always made me feel bad because he never seemed to catch a break when he didn’t have any powers to compete with (at the beginning). But it was incredible to see him slowly find his own strengths and stop comparing himself to people he literally could not be; even though he got powers later, the principle of him comparing himself still followed him until he realized how much this was hurting him and his relationship with others. It taught me not to compare myself to everyone around me; it’s okay for others to be smarter in school, faster in sports, and more sociable in club activities. I have strengths too that I need to be more proud of showing to the world.
- Lesson Learned in Episode: On the Edge (Season 4, Episode 19- 20)
Cartoon Network:
- Amazing World of Gumball: Foolishness is Necessary
- For those that don’t know the show, this is about a cat named Gumball who is known for getting himself in sticky situations. While he never really learns his lessons, he does get reprimanded by his best friend Darwin, who was once the family fish but then grew legs and became part of the family. Now both of them live life on the edge, experiencing all kinds of nonsense while they’re at it.
- I was super studious when I was younger, and I think sometimes I passed on fun activities to study. But this made me super tense because I’d just have anxiety about having nothing better to do than study. If I’m being honest, watching this show was a perfect way to pass the time because all I ever saw was foolishness at its finest. The hijinks that Darwin and Gumball would get themselves into whether at school or at home were things that I could never imagine doing. But the whole point is to just let loose and enjoy life- even if it means doing something unimaginable to pass the time or creatively imagining problems in life.
- Lesson Learned in Episode: The Procrastinators (Season 3, Episode 19)
- Lesson Learned in Episode: The Boredom (Season 5, Episode 4)