One of the most important things I learned growing up is that people change, their personalities change, and their interests change as well. My interest in video games never changed, in fact, I think they continued to grow and dominate all of my other interests. However, going through the last few years of elementary school and junior high, people acted like their interests defined who they were as a person. You had to like things that were targeted to you, otherwise, why bother? Suddenly, some of the stuff I liked to watch, and even some of the games I played were "too childish" for me. They were "for kids." It wasn't just my peers in school, but it was family that acted like I shouldn't like half of what I was into because they were "for kids." And for awhile, I believed it. I believed that I should only like things targeted to young teens, or things that young teens weren't technically supposed to invest interest in.
So imagine my scoff when I learned about Kingdom Hearts. Final Fantasy meets Disney? I was curious, but I was in that mentality that I wasn't supposed to like "kids things" at the time this game was generating hype, and that included Disney. But the curiosity, and the score inticed me enough to want to at least try the game. I ended up getting the game as a birthday present, which was not at all what I intended. But as I played the game, I noticed something. I became genuinely interested in Disney again. I became interested in all the things I enjoyed when I was younger again. I no longer felt shame or guilt for any of my interests. As corny as it may sound, playing through Kingdom Hearts taught me that any form of media can be appreciated regardless of age, and that I shouldn't let anyone make me feel like I should be ashamed of what I liked in the first place. It was my interests that helped define who I am. What reason do I have to put pride over my interests?