It's a perfect circle.
A full mile going all the way around.
The full mile that I would walk,
Ringing doorbell after doorbell,
To see who wanted to play.

It's a group secretly united through the past,
Through all those home-made versions of Camp Rock and High School Musical,
That we have recorded on video tapes hidden somewhere in my armoire.
Through Megan and Kennedy fighting about who would be Sharpay, Gabriella and Demi.
Through the band we created and named BFF5,
And all those songs we wrote buried in my basement somewhere.

It's when the snow falls,
And we stomp through the neighborhood,
Recruiting as many people as possible to go sledding.
One year, we had over 20 people.

It's the holiday parties,
The epic kickball games,
The many cannon ball contest,
Seeing who can make the biggest splash.
The manhunt games,
And the pitter-patter of our footsteps as we run for our lives.
The many vacations we took together,
From the Poconos in the winter to Disney World in the summer.

It's growing up,
Our age differences starting to matter.
Danielle is two years older.
Kennedy and Megan and Carleigh are one year younger.
Victoria and Annika are one year older.
Ashley is three years older.
Jack and Grace are three years younger.
Noelle and Emily and Bryden are four years younger.

There are no more lemonade stands,
Or circling of the neighborhood,
Or sessions of manhunt.
No more fighting over Sharpay.
No more cannon ball contests.
No more sledding sprees.
No more group vacations.
No more outrageous songs about love we hadn't had yet.

There are phones,
And boys,
And giggling,
And designer clothes,
And laying around doing nothing,
And letting popularity decide things for you,
And only hanging out with the kids in our grades.
In my neighborhood, their are no kids in my grade,
Which never used to matter.
I guess it does matter now.

We have all changed,
Some for the better, some for the worst,
But we will always remember,
Where we have come from,
And that is each other.
We will always have the invisible bond,
That invisible circle,
Ringing around us,
And keeping us together.
We share a childhood.
No, scratch that, we ARE our childhoods.
And no one forgets their childhoods.
It's always a part of them,
A special spot reserved in their hearts for it.
And that's what I am.
A special spot reserved in their hearts.

So, while we might not always be together,
We will always remember each other,
Because your childhood is something that you can't forget.
It's what shapes you and makes you who you are.

My neighborhood,
That perfect circle,
Is part of what I am.
It is what shaped me and made me.
It's the perfect circular cookie-cutter indent in my heart.

It's my childhood,
Something that I can never forget.
An neither can they.