Disney has never failed to provide us with quality entertainment, not only when we were young kids but even now. It misses no opportunity to make us laugh, cry and learn in a short period (a maximum of 2 hours 19 minutes. Yep. The longest Disney movie is Mary Poppins which is 2 hours and 19 minutes long)

But there’s a part of Disney that I love more than anything. It’s a show. Disney became important to me after the show. It all started when Disney International HD started to air in India. It had a variety of shows but one of them caught my attention, probably for my entire life.

It was: Girl Meets World

All characters together of Girl Meets World

Credit: https://in.pinterest.com/pin/327707310369252103/ 

 This show, Girl Meets World, means to me what Harry Potter, Marvel, GoT,  Friends, or Starwars mean to most people. It is absolutely precious. This show has given me moments, concepts, and characters who are more real to me than real people, that will be treasured and  cherished forever. It has taught me that the valuable things in life can be taught and learned  inside a classroom, if you try to relate it to yourself enough. The central characters have been actualized in my life and those around me (I have been lucky that my best friend also happened to watch the show). Fortunately for Potterheads, I happen to be able to explain it in their jargon. The main teen characters Riley, Maya, Zay, Lucas, Farkle and Smackle (I know I know even I don’t understand why somebody would name their kids Farkle and Smackle) parallel with Hermione, Ginny, Harry, Ron, Neville and Luna respectively (of course there are exception such that Maya doesn’t end up with Zay).

I would like to pass on the wisdom this show has armed me with. I’m sure Mr. Matthews would be proud (you’ll know if you watch the show). I’m giving you the exact episodes in case you wish to go and check out the episodes.

1. In the age where people are utterly involved with social media (I realise the advantages of social media, but I’m just well aware of its menace) and have colossal friend lists, Mr. Matthews AKA Cory AKA Riley’s dad makes us realise how important are those handful of friends that we can actually talk to without a mobile. I especially love this episode because it tugs my heart. Riley’s best friend Maya encourages her to talk to the new boy Lucas, FACE TO FACE, IN PERSON. So why does this episode affect me so much? Because I don’t have a phone. Yes, I really don’t. Not that parents don’t get me one, but because I don’t wanna get trapped by it. So, I’ll wait till I’m ready for it. This episode has taught me that the important things or people don’t happen or meet you inside a phone. [ season 1 episode 2] 
2.  History is alive even if you weren’t. We never ever realise how our choices today can affect our future. I know I know, it’s cliché but it’s true. Take Riley, Maya, Farkle and Lucas’ great grandparents in 1961 as an example. They met at a café, but if they had stayed, they would have saved their great grandchildren the work of researching that their great grandparents had met and could be friends and help out each other. So, don’t let your history be on with missed opportunities. [ season 1 episode 9]
3. This episode makes us pay attention to the time of our lives when we prioritise our friends over our family and become noticeably rebellious because our parents don’t understand. Whereas, the reality is that they are just worried about losing us. This beautifully compared with America trying to break away from the British hands. However, unlike the American colonies we come around and realise our parents are worth wayyyyy more than we think. [season 1 episode 17]
4. You probably know about the times when we think the world revolves around us, we are the centre of the universe. Sure we are the centre of the universe. The centre of our universe. Riley and Maya decide that they are done with Riley’s father teaching them and presumably they decide  to leave the class. They think that their parents are circling around them. However, soon enough they realise they were not the centre of the universe. The world went on without them, both the one they left and the one they came into. It hits them then, that they were important only because of the ones around them, they were the ones who made them who they are (and also the kings of middle school). Their universe was nothing without the ones around them. They recognise that the earth revolves around the sun for its needs. The sun doesn’t revolve around the earth.[season 2 episode 1]
5. Life’s pretty comfortable when it’s going smoothly, no changes and you like it. There’s the comfort that you have people around you who share everything with you and you think you know everything about them. Then there’s something about one of the people you love the most, something that you never knew existed. That’s what happened with Riley. She never knew why his best friend Lucas came to their school, and she was never interested to know. Until a guy from Lucas’ previous school shows  up and talks about Lucas as a person who no one knows. Turns out he changed a lot, not that he wasn’t the gentleman he is now but still there were amends. But how did they take place? It’s the secret of life; PEOPLE CHANGE PEOPLE. It is who you spend your time with that shapes you. Learning from the people you care about is more important than learning about words on any page. [season 2 episode 3]

Conclusively, I’d like to thank Disney for giving so much more to me.I’d like to thank all the characters of Girls Meets World for becoming a part of my world. I hope to thank all of these people personally someday. But for today I have this.

You know the feeling of having an ice cream on a scorching hot day. The feeling of the chilled ice cream on your tongue. So, like most of the kids, my mum buys me a ten rupee chocobar ice cream, the one you are supposed to get every day (after much pleading, of course). It would taste nice, but you know it could have been better had it been the butterscotch cone or the chocolate cone. And then there’s the weekend ice cream, the one that dad lets you buy. You have the choice to buy. So of course, like most 8 yo¹ kids(and no I’m not 8 yo, but I sure do behave like one), I pick the most expensive and the latest ice cream. And to be honest, most of them aren’t worth it (barring a few exceptions). Sure they were nice but definitely not worth that much. For the same reasons, I am notorious for trying every single ice cream possible, no matter how the taste or appearance is. Not to mention that the favourites are also chosen from the sacrifices of my experiment and the opportunity to choose some already tried fairly good ice cream. 

Soon enough, the weekend gets over…

Andddddd we are back to the daily chocobar. Over the years, as I have been promoted from primary school, I have got the facility of an ice cream parlour in my school (Yes, an ice cream parlour in school).  Now you must be like, “So, what happened to the daily chocobar your mum got you?”. Well, I still get it but there’s a small change. Instead of mum buying it for me, she gives the ten rupees to me and I can go and get it in school.  So, what I do is get the money, wait for recess, go to the ice cream parlour with my best friend in the recess, have that chocobar (cause I don’t have any other option in that budget), eat it, and try to make it back to class before the teacher arrives (I am mostly lucky in this high risk mission). And I have done this again and again for two years and now I love it. I love every single thing about it. I love the hurry to finish my lunch ASAP to have enough time to eat the ice cream at ease. I love talking with my best friend while eating the ice cream. I love to have a bite (ok, maybe half the ice cream) from my best friend’s ice cream when I forget my money and I love to have ice cream in winter from my friend’s lunch money, when I’m on the verge of having a cold.

So I have a few observation on the subject of ice cream:

• Two ten rupees chocobar gets you more quantity than one twenty rupees chocobar.
• Chocobar is a tough thing to bite if it’s absolutely chilled and hard. 
• I have realised one particularly important thing. The most expensive ice cream may not be the best ice cream. You thought this was gonna be about the things in life?

Well tbh² it is, but ice cream is just as important as any other thing in life.

Okay okay let’s move to the things in life, if you insist so.

 Continuing further,

• I wanted to say that the best things in life need not be the most expensive, over the top or extraordinary, bizarre, phenomenal or unbelievable. They can and more often than not are the everyday things which are absolutely routine.
• It is the recess ice cream that has made me bond with my friend, not the weekend chocolate cone. Similarly, it is the routine things from where the best moments of our lives emerge, the ones which make us appreciate our happy times and help the distressed days pass(though I believe that events and celebrations can have huge impacts on our lives, but I’ll save that for some other time).

So I guess I’ll prefer chocobar over the chocolate cone now. But a little bit of weekend butterscotch cones would be appreciated. Literally and metaphorically!.

Teen lingo – In case you thought something else
1. yo – years old
2. tbh – to be honest