10 Popular Medias I Didn’t Experience Until my 20’s
With last Wednesday being my 26th birthday, I decided it would be fun to look back at some of the things I experienced so far in my 20’s. The funny thing is, some of this stuff is media that people experience much sooner. I may have experienced these later than many people, but these really changed my 20’s.
1. Harry Potter Books
Growing up, I always loved to read. I never got into the Harry Potter saga, and I wish I had sooner. I had seen some of the movies (out of order) on T.V. when they had the Harry Potter Movie Marathons, but I had never read the books.
When I graduated from college and still had never read the books, I figured it was time. I read the whole series in a few months (they’re massive books), and I am so glad that I did. Better late than never!
2. Zelda
Video games were never really a big part of my childhood. In fact, most gaming I did was when my family got a Wii for Christmas one year. For Jeremy’s birthday this year, I bought him Zelda: Call of the Wild.
Now, I am awful with maneuvering in video games, so we played this game as a team. He took the controls, and I did some backseat driving. It was a great way to spend time together!
3. Pulp Fiction
My husband made me watch this after the hundredth time that I didn’t get a reference. I remember staying up late to watch it, and I held my breath the whole time, waiting for it to get good. It didn’t. I know that might make many people mad, but I was not too fond of this movie. At least I get the references now!
4. Star Wars
My family is filled with huge Disney fans, yet most of us never actually sat down and watched the Star Wars movies. I remember watching the same one at the same part over and over again when I babysat in middle school, but I was too busy playing on my phone to watch. I decided that I had to change that.
I am still working on watching all of the movies (there are a LOT of movies), but I plan on finishing them before the world goes back to normal.
5. Pride and Prejudice
I consider myself an avid reader. I read all of the time. In fact, if you gave me a choice between curling up with a book or watching a movie, I will pick a book almost every time. I felt as an avid reader, and I was a disgrace to have never read Pride and Prejudice.
I started by reading the book, but I could only read so much before getting distracted. It’s an older book, so I wasn’t used to the way that it was written. I decided to listen to the rest of it on audiobook while I painted, and I finished it in two days. It’s such a classic, and now I will think of it every time I look at that painting. Plus, the movie is great too!
6. Super Mario Sunshine
Like I said above, I didn’t play many games growing up. I never sought out games that I missed, but Jeremy got excited when the new Mario games got released on the Nintendo Switch. This is the first real game that I played without Jeremy handling the controls.
Let me tell you. Video games are HARD. For someone who has a bad sense of direction, maneuvering in a 3D world is way harder than it looks. I typically can play for about an hour before I get tired and have to take a break. Either way, I feel like video games are a great way to learn many life skills, and I wish I played them more as a kid.
7. Newsies
Musicals are another type of entertainment that I didn’t appreciate until after high school. The Newsies movie came out in 1992, but I didn’t actually watch it until this year. Besides hearing a couple of the musical numbers, I had no idea what the whole story was about. I appreciate any musical that raises awareness about historical events.
8. Hamilton
Speaking of historical events, I never understood the hype about musical Hamilton. Then again, I never had the opportunity to see it on stage. When the movie came out, I cuddled up on the couch with a notebook to enjoy it. Of course, the curious me wanted to fact check and saw how much of the musical was historically accurate. You can read about that more in my Hamilton post.
9. A Christmas Carol
I knew who Scrooge was from a young age because it was a joke that my dad was Scrooge. I’ve seen cartoon versions of the movie, including Mickey’s Christmas Carol, but I had never taken time to watch the original movie. Typically, I’m not a huge fan of older movies–honestly, I’m not a huge movie watcher at all. I’m glad I watched this Christmas classic.
10. Percy Jackson
I teach elementary school, so a lot of times, I like to read books that were written for kids. Percy Jackson was one of the series that I never tried reading as a kid, but my friends recommended it to me. I decided to try it, and I discovered a whole new genre of books I am now obsessed with.
When I taught fourth grade (for a hot second at the beginning of this school year), I liked taking the time to share books we liked with each other to build a community of readers. This is a series that popped into my head as one of my favorites, and I know a few of my students started to read them before I got moved to second grade. Rick Riordan, you are a creative genius!
Learn More
With all that said, I think appreciating different media is extremely important to get to know yourself better. I wanted to link ways to find the various media I talked about above for your enjoyment. Enjoy!
