Growing up, I’ve always heard the “when I was your age” stories. Walking uphill both ways in the snow to school. Or the way handwritten letters were the kindest gesture of love. The way a man treated a woman, the way kids treated adults. What have we become?

Think about your life, now think about your future. When you’re kids one day have kids of their own, and they say “what was it like when you were a kid?” Think about what you’re going to have to say…

When I was a kid:

It was rare for a boy to hold the door open for you, but if he did it was considered respectful or affectionate if they slapped your butt as you passed by. How you’d really know if they liked you was if they DM’d you at 3AM saying “wyd.” And if they wanted to be a thing they’d probably throw a few fire emojis into the comments on your Insta picture.

I actually loved the way a boy would pick me up for a date and Snapchat message me “here.” Once upon a time boys would get out of the car, maybe with a flower in hand, and like meet your parents and stuff, but wow how “extra.”

When I was a kid, we learned how to replace our feelings and thoughts with pictures or emojis, sometimes even memes.

It was always funny to joke about anxiety and depression, do you know how many times people tweeted “I’ll pay someone to kill me?”

When my friends would pick me up, we’d usually be listening to derogatory rap music which insulted our entire femininity. I still remember how hyped I would get when Eminem would rap “If she ever tries to f**king leave again, imma tie her to the bed and set this house on fire.” It was always smiled upon, the way rappers could influence the world with their music.

My favorite part of growing up was when people developed a new word for girls - “thots.” You see, the more girls a boy slept with in my day, the better. But when a girl slept with a couple of boys, she became a “thot.” Sometimes she could even be considered a "thot" by the shortness of her clothing, or the way she acted in public. Of course, this word was made up through music like most other labels for women.

I’m glad I grew up when I did.

Basically the more skin you showed, the better off you were. But you had to be careful because the more skin you showed the more you tempted boys and you’d be blamed if you “made” them do something you didn’t want them to do.

Snapchat was really the only way of communicating. Why text them or call them when you could just send them random pictures of you or your surroundings and label it “streak?”

The best thing is we had this app called VSCO and it was totally normal for people to post naked pictures, or their cute new Calvin Klein set. Artsy!

I remember the way it was cool to disrespect authority figures and adults and elders, because screw them. If they don’t bow down to your request, they don’t deserve your respect.

Life was great, we were young and wild, we were ruthless, and being called a savage was the highest form of a compliment. Being a bad b**ch was something that got you respect. You were entitled to almost anything you chose. Nobody really accepted not being the best, and most of us didn’t know how to talk to someone face to face. We changed society! We were the generation to do that. It was such a beautiful time, back when I was a kid.