You may remember waking up that early, Sunday morning. The night before, you tossed and turned with anticipation, but it wasn’t Christmas — it was Easter.

Your parents woke you up before the sun had risen and walked you down the steps. Your eyes wandered around the house before even arriving to the destination of your little Easter basket. Easter baskets were filled with little, yellow, peep marshmallows. The rest of your basket was filled to the top with a variety of different chocolates, only for you to find more on the Easter egg hunt.

You emptied out your Easter basket full of goodies and looked up and down the house — mostly up, though, since you were so young. Easter eggs were hidden in the cabinets, on top of lamp shades, all around the house. Occasionally, you would hit the jackpot and find money in the pastel pink Easter egg.

“I think there’s 20 total,” your mom would say, but you both sat there confused when you searched and searched, then could only find 19. No one could remember where the last egg was hidden.

It was time to get out of the pajamas and put on your white Easter dress. After hours of searching around the house for Easter eggs, it was only 9 a.m., but time for church.

Easter as a child was so different than Easter now. I can’t remember the last time I was “excited” for Easter. The whole concept of the holiday was skewed with the Easter eggs, enormous amounts of chocolate, and the Easter bunny.

Who even made up the Easter bunny? How do rabbits and eggs correlate whatsoever? Also, who thought it was a good idea for a man to dress up in a giant bunny costume and have children take pictures with him?

As a child we thought of Easter as an extra important church service. Jesus had risen, and we got to celebrate with an Easter egg hunt. Then we proceeded to sit through the church service, singing and munching on our chocolates.

Now, we forget what Easter even is. We get paid time and a half, though, if we work that day. Where did all of the excitement and anticipation go for the holiday?

Now, you may be only dragging yourself to the church service because you “feel like you should” on Easter.

Now, we’re enjoying our spring breaks and dreading going back to college. We’re only thinking about the rest of the semester and how many exams we’re going to have to cram in the last few weeks of class.

Now, our spring breaks aren’t correlated with Easter. Before college, the purpose of spring break was to spend Easter at home and with family, to go travel and visit Grandma for extra Easter eggs and to go to church with her.

Now, our spring breaks revolve around going to Daytona or Myrtle Beach with as many friends as possible.

The meaning and festivities of Easter have changed drastically as a child vs. now. Easter egg hunts, church services, and pictures with the Easter bunny are almost nonexistent. Remember Easter as you did as a little kid, remember the real meaning behind Easter, and enjoy the “extra special” church service.