Kevin Arnold: The boy we grew up with

What would you do if I sang out of tune? 
Would you stand up and walk out on me? 
Lend me your ears and I'll sing you a song, 
I will try not to sing out of key.
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Maybe that's not exactly the way it happened, but that's the way it should've happened and that's the way I like to remember it and if dreams and memories sometimes get confused, well that's as it should be. Because every kid deserves to be a hero. Every kid already is. 

-Kevin Arnold

Alright, so the third personality on my list, from last year!, is a fictional one.

Kevin Arnold from an old TV series called "The Wonder Years".

Awesome stuff.

The role was played by Fred Savage.
Now, I don't know much about Fred or how he got cast or any of that.
And it's been really long since I watched the show.
But I remember the essence of it. Who could forget!
I probably wouldn't have been that into it had I not grown up with a sibling who is 7 years older than me.
I watched mostly because she did.
But that was in the beginning.
It grew on me. And then, I watched it because I loved it.

This is the summary of the show on IMDb:

An adult Kevin Arnold reminisces on his teenage years spent growing up during the 60s. As he goes from adolescence to adulthood, he experiences, along with his best friend Paul and sometimes-girlfriend Winnie, the full range of trials and traumas that come in just about everyone's life.

This 1988-1993 period dramedy takes place during the turbulent times of the late 1960s and 1970s. The show focuses on Kevin Arnold, a young teenager living in a quiet middle-class suburb, and his family and friends. Throughout the series' five-year run, Kevin deals with middle and high school, encounters puberty, has ups and downs with childhood sweetheart Winnie Cooper, deals with annoying older brother Wayne, and hangs out with geeky-but-lovable Paul. The series is told from Kevin's point-of-view. 

I'm not quite sure how to give you a feel of the show or the character, if you haven't watched it- ever. I suppose quoting the things he said and maybe choosing videos of some of the more memorable moments would help. 

A suburban junior high school cafeteria is like a microcosm of the world. The goal is to protect yourself, and safety comes in groups. You have your cool kids, you have your smart kids, you have your greasers, and in those days, of course, you had your hippies. In a fact in junior high school, who you are is defined less by who you are than by who's the person sitting next to you. 

~Kevin when entering the cafeteria

What I loved about The Wonder Years is the simple, honest way Kevin narrates his story; 

Ordinary, everyday things we think and feel. The moments we probably take for granted. The lessons we don't even realize we're learning. Even the lessons you realize you've failed to learn, while you watch.

Then there are relationships. 

From the kind you share with a sibling, who as much as you work to annoy, you will always stick by; 

to the understanding between a parent and a child. Between Kevin and his dad, for instance, words are over-rated. Sometimes you don't need to say how you feel. Your actions speak a lot louder. 

The show, in many ways, made me think of how often the fact that we love someone surpasses our need to understand them.

Love chooses to be blind. It's why we have the people we can always count on, no questions asked.

There's more to life than being cool, athletic, and popular.

~Kevin Arnold

If anything, Kevin's best-friendship with the geeky, endearing Paul would confirm that quote above. It's the quirky, yet completely real, no nonsense equation between the two that I love. Everyone needs that/those someone/s with whom they can say exactly what they think and not have to worry about how it sounds. That someone who will not be afraid to tell you exactly what everyone else is either too afraid to or doesn't care enough to tell you, even if it is something that's going to be hard for you to hear. I love how they manage to make the serious stuff funny too. It was a well written series, for sure!

If there’s one thing every kid needs growing up, it’s a best friend. Someone you trust. Someone who trusts you. Someone you measure yourself against. You go through everything together. Important things. Stupid things. Things that matter. Things that don’t.

~Kevin

When you're a little boy, you don't have to go very far to find the center of your universe. Mom. She's always there. It's a pretty good arrangement - when you're five. But around age thirteen, there starts to be... a problem. The problem is...she's always there. And I mean always. Now a mom has to be a mom, but a guy's gotta be a guy. And when an irresistible force meets an immovable object... Sooner or later - something's gotta give.

~Kevin

 It was a strange and passionate time. Some of our dreams dissolved into thin air. 

They almost seem comical now. But some of our dreams are lasting and real.

~Kevin

My favourite sub-story of The Wonder Years was the little love tale of Kevin and Winnie. Young love and the madness and wisdom it knows. Something I'm sure any person, young or old, could relate to.

Love makes you do funny things. It makes you proud. It makes you sorry. That night we talked. About life. About our times together. Maybe we weren't the same two kids we had once been. But some things never change. Some things last. And even though I didn't know what was going to happen to us, or where we were going. I just knew I couldn't let her out of my life.

~Kevin

Through the series, Kevin and Winnie's relationship sees many phases. From falling in love to drifting apart, to making the other jealous to beings friends to finding each other again. All the while she stays his main girl. 

Over the course of the average lifetime you meet a lot of people. 

Some of them stick with you through thick and thin. 

Some weave their way through your life and disappear forever. 

But once in a while someone comes along who earns a permanent place in your heart.

~Kevin

So, for so many reasons The Wonder Years was wonderful growing up on. It may have been based in a time we're lucky enough or unlucky enough to have missed. (Depends entirely on how you see it. =) ) But it remains a humour-full reminder that whoever you are, in whatever decade you were born, you're probably not as special as you'd like to imagine 'cause what you feel and what you think has probably been felt and thought before. Yet, you're also probably the center of someone's universe or a huge, irreplaceable part of a bunch of people's worlds. You're probably giving yourself less credit than you deserve and sometimes too much for your own good. You're probably just making your way they best you know how...

Getting by with a little help from your friends.

Growing up happens in a heartbeat. One day you're in diapers, the next day you're gone. But the memories of childhood stay with you for the long haul. I remember a place, a town, a house like a lot of other houses, a yard like a lot of other yards, on a street like a lot of other streets. And the thing is, after all these years, I still look back, with wonder.

So, whoever you are and wherever you're from, no matter what you do with your life, 

here's hoping you always look back with wonder.