Being the youngest kid in my family allowed me to have a full experience of the early 2000s. Some of my most vivid memories include waking up early in the morning with my brother and sister to catch the Top Music Videos on VH1, watching Jersey Shore (yikes), playing The Sims 2 and finding the simlish version of “Pressure” by Paramore, and my sister teaching me a dance to Lil Wayne’s “Fireman” as we listened on her bright red iPod Nano in the backseat of our car.

With my sister being 7 years older than me, I followed the pop culture and trends that were really meant for teenagers. Upon reflection, this was probably not the greatest thing for my impressionable brain, as most things of that decade were not suitable for young children to say the very least. However, I’m pretty sure this is what made me one of the cooler elementary school kids of my time. 

When I was eight years old, I would wake up at 7 a.m. every Saturday morning to use my home computer before anyone in my family was awake to play Club Penguin and Webkinz while listening to all of my sister’s music on iTunes. Again, she would have been 15 at the time, so a lot of the songs were either explicit or just feeding me questionable messages—they were all bangers nonetheless. I did make a point of knowing all the lyrics to my favorite songs, but luckily I did not comprehend what most of them meant (most notably “London Bridge” by Fergie and “If You Seek Amy” by Britney Spears). For better or for worse, these were my go-to tracks on those mornings.

https://open.spotify.com/playlist/0FOGLZlraCntwMQV4G9sM5?si=gpgkR_2qR8e4MBi5GQef2g