Looking back on my elementary school days, a blissful era that tragically ended a half-decade ago, some of my fondest memories with my friends are from when we’d all be playing with whatever things were popular at the time (i.e. Rainbow looms, slime, and the Kendama, which seemed nearly impossible to master).

I miss fads.

Are trends just not trendy in high school? Are we, as teenagers, too cool to indulge in passing fancies? I miss the days when I could walk up to someone who I didn’t talk to much and chat about the super hot fad that was in at the moment. Having these kinds of things to talk about creates an easy, quick way to connect with people.

It’s easy to be so focused on hyper-individuality and being different from the general whole, that the concept of doing something the way that everyone else does or buying something that everyone else has isn’t considered cool anymore. For example, how we intentionally seek out small musical artists instead of largely popular ones.

Instead of seeking out a new fad that everyone takes part in, many people sort themselves into different boxes of niche interests. While this culture limits fads, it’s good in its own way, giving people various communities that they feel like they can relate to.

Even though this is great, it’s not as special as when everyone, whether or not they liked K Pop or Punk Rock, would obsess over one thing, creating a generally shared experience.

Recently, my mom has let me scavenge through all of her old clothing to see if we could find anything I might like. As we were looking through her stuff, she would spot something, such as a huge scrunchie, from “back in her day,” smile, and say something like “oh! I remember those! They were super trendy when I was in high school. We used to…” and she would tell me a story about her and her friends from back then. Then she’d email one of her friends a photo of whatever we stumbled upon, either talking about how they couldn’t believe that they took part in that fad when they were younger, or how they hoped it would come back.

On one particular day, we were going through her old stuff, and it occurred to me: in the future, will I have all of these stories to tell? Would I be able to look back on my prime high school years while rummaging through my stuff with someone and recall all of these memories we made during those eras while laughing at ourselves?

The best part about trends is that they are so ubiquitous that they give people something to relate to in the present, but also something that they all can look back on in the future; a shared nostalgia.

Fun items and fashionable clothing that aren’t just microtrends are things that we can look back on to define a generation, and I hope that in the future, we’ll have more things like that, especially in high school, to define our years of adolescence too.