When you close your eyes and think back to your childhood, what do you see? I get taken back when I think about summer kickball games with the neighborhood kids, the French toast my mom used to make me every Saturday morning and skyscrapers of stacked Disney VHS tapes. Like most kids, Disney basically made my childhood. There was a constant stream of Disney movies playing on our television. Once they were over, we subjected ourselves to the ever dreaded task of rewinding the tapes all the way back to the beginning just to watch them again. And don’t even get me started on the first time I went to Walt Disney World. But enough about me. The point of that little anecdote is that I know there are thousands of people just like me that had a magic filled childhood. That is why it pains me to hear people say that they are too old for Disney.

We are at that age that we are starting to realize what it means to be adults. We are always told that we need to be more responsible and independent. We have to start paying rent and hiring companies to connect the water that we thought just ran on its own at the turn of a faucet. Exams are getting harder and social circles are getting smaller. All roads lead to the F word that has been grimly looming over our heads since we picked our majors—our future.

With people being so preoccupied with where they are going, they often forget where they came from. A lot of people try to throw away all childhood tendencies when they get older. To some people’s misfortune, Disney gets thrown out along with the old dolls and pink sheets. We were always told to be more responsible, but no one ever told us to that we had to give up something that made us happy. There have been a number of people that I have met in college that have said that Disney is for children. Needless to say, I am not friends with any of those people. But I do feel sorry for them. Without Disney, their lives have no magic. Magic is what makes us believe that anything is possible. Magic is what brings people closer together. With all of our responsibilities and the stress that feels like it will never go away, it is nice to have an outlet, even if it only lasts the length of the newest Disney animation. With Disney, you enter a world that is entirely whimsical and where impossible things can happen. You are brought back to a time in your life where your biggest problem was which color Fruit Stripe zebra gum you wanted to chew. Disney reminds us that life isn’t all about paying bills. So to the people who think they are “too old” for Disney, I urge you to think about what you are giving up. Speaking for all the lifelong Disney fanatics in the world, we invite you to be our guest, never grow up, and watch a few of the most nostalgic flicks that just happened to all be started by a mouse.