Turning 21 is a HUGE deal. It’s very exciting to be able to buy alcohol and go to the bars with your friends. (That is if they would just hurry up and turn 21 already!) Personally, I have been planning my 21st birthday for nearly a month, but as I thought about what I really wanted to do I found myself longing to enjoy what I did as a kid. From summer swim team to Pokémon, I have recently been reacquainted with some things that mean being a kid to me. Looking backward to my childhood activities and forward to being 21, I have made a list of my Toddler-On-Tap Specialty Drinks. In honor of growing up, here are a list of drinks that I will never grow out of.
- Chocolate Milk
- This may seem strange, but I have good reasoning. I like to pretend that I eat and drink healthy but I’m just fooling myself the same way chocolate milk is fooling us all into thinking it’s healthy because of the milk. (Especially when I would make it myself: 1-part milk, 2-parts chocolate syrup.) Nonetheless, thank you chocolate milk for being a part of my “nutritious” breakfast and going so well with all things peanut butter.
- Crystal Light
- Thank you Crystal Light for being the ONLY thing keeping me from dying of thirst at my grandparents’ house. It must be an unspoken rule that when you turn 65 you have to force-feed children Crystal Light and tea cookies. This extremely sugary drink really knows how to mask the taste of Mom-mom’s forgotten candy bowl candies. I’d rather experience “The Visit” in real life than have another glass of Crystal Light.
- Water
- I don’t drink water half as much as I should and my immune system definitely gives me a hard time because of it. However, when I do exercise or spend the whole night dancing at a crowded, sweaty concert, water becomes the nectar of the gods. Water, you know exactly what my body needs, because it’s you.
- Fruit Punch
- Specifically, Juicy Juice Punch in a can. I haven’t experienced Juicy Juice in a can for a very long time and I’m guessing it isn’t sold like that anymore, but I greatly miss it. Juicy Juice definitely doesn’t taste the same anymore and I will fight anyone that disagrees. (Not really, I’d lose.) Maybe it’s the growing older complex, where things don’t taste as great now as you thought they did as a kid. Either way, I thank Juicy Juice for being my play time refresher of choice.
Cheers to all the other drinks that refreshed me in my time of thirst and aren’t recognized here today. This is not a “goodbye”, just a “what can I mix you with?”
