Oh Television, how I miss you so. You taught me moral values throughout elementary school, you taught me dramatic stories in middle school, and you taught me life-changing lessons in high school. Single-handedly, these shows below have influenced me, to without a doubt, the point to where I am now (as cliche as that sounds).

Bananas in Pajamas: Oh, how I used to wake up and watch this every morning with my siblings before embracing the magic of elementary school.

Arthur: YES. D.W. seriously needs to let go out of her obsessive attachment to that snowball, and Arthur’s voice needs to stop changing. Other than that, the moral values I’ve learned from this series have been critical in influencing what I find important in life (in terms of love, friendship, and personal responsibility).

Zoom: Experiment with random crafts and activities, wherever you can. I loved the cast of the first season, until they screwed it all up and kept replacing the kids (with younger, and I must say much snobbier children).

Recess: Because cliques exist at even a young age [as seen in the show], and have been critical in my self-identification of various collective units in our society (i.e. The Ashleys)

The Simpsons: The value of family. The value of reruns. I watched this show literally every day for an hour roughly between the hours of 6pm-8pm. And I enjoyed every bit of it. It’s nostalgic looking back at the older episodes, and seeing how the newer ones fail to live up to the same magic.

The O.C.: When the dramatic phase of middle school hit, the life lessons of the teenage drama The O.C. hit me dearly (especially in terms of the Summer-Seth romance, which never really came to fruition in my universe….)

24: Every second counts. Clearly, this helped me cherish life a little bit (as well as added some much needed suspense in my life).

And then I went to college, and the shows I grew attached to largely drifted away. I watched much less television as the years progressed to the point where the only show I watched “live” was Glee. I know we’re living in an Internet age where everything can be seen online, but I miss the magic of waiting for an episode to air, and watching it immediately with people. Furthermore, I miss the magic of watching reruns everyday when I come home from school.

But life will only get busier. Television is meant to entertain the masses, but it remains a deep place in my heart because I was practically raised by the television set. I didn’t have the luxury as a kid to live life much, and instead of indulging in books, I indulged in the most convenient place possible – TELEVISION.

And to prove how devoted I was to said shows, I have attached a “model periodic table” made for Mr. Isaacson’s high school Chemistry class: Instead of elements, I used television shows within the various columns. ENJOY >:)