I had dreams.

Not sure why I had the imagination. To the ire of my mother, I like to say that as a baby my sitter was where two walls met along with my alphabet blocks and Ninja Turtles.

photo credit: danorth1

I was a quiet kid who pointed and grunted for what I wanted.

"Milk?" My mother asked.

"Uhh," I would reply.

Being the middle kid my brothers always did their own thing which I think now is bittersweet. I’ve developed this active imagination which is the sweet but I never really got to hanging out with my brothers which is the bitter. My little brother would hit me! I would ask my mother to tell him to stop and she told me, "hit him back." I guess that was the advice when spanking was all the rage. So… I hit him back and never looked back since.

So back to dreams.

I don’t remember watching the program, at least in specifics but I remember watching a show on T.V. at my grandmas house when I was around six or seven years old. It was about dolphins and I was very much into nature as a kid. I was into a lot of things as a kid, really geeky stuff. Anyway, I was so engrossed in the show I remember thinking that I had to be a zoologist or at that age, a wild animal pet keeper. So what better way to get into the business? You write a book.

I made a book; binding, covers, and all using yellow yarn, red and green construction paper, and that kid post-consumer brownish-gray solid and dashed line paper you used to practice cursive writing. And I wrote book complete with illustrations.

Excerpts include:

"Dolpins are mammals."

"Dolpins have blowholes."

"Dolpins eat fish!"

photo credit: pinhole

 

And I showed my uncle who was in the kitchen this little 5×6 inch book that I made and watched him read it and look at the pictures of dolphins jumping out of the water into the air. I looked at him I’m sure with eager eyes waiting for his comments; and he said, "Dolpins? what are dolpins?" with a laugh. He then handed it back to me. As I think back to it I feel like I was thinking, "jerk." But in reality I was probably heartbroken.

Now at the ripe old age of.. ahem… 24 I continue to write, anything, stories and articles and here this nifty blog. I know at the time I was probably ready to give up and look forward to a life accounting or something but I realize now that there will always be people who put you down, who tell you with words or actions that you can’t do something you enjoy, even love. Those closest to you will do it as well and from them it will hurt more but the final defeat comes when you yourself says that you can’t do it.

I wish I still had that book on "Dolpins" If only as a testament.