Mickey Mouse and I share the same birthday, November 18. While the “birth” of Mickey is in 1928, 61 years before my own, it does explain a lot about myself. Disney is the source of my inspiration and my compass in life. Truthfully, it has never occurred to me that I had shared the same birthday until recently. I have heard people say that the future of a child is determined by the family they are born in to. I was born in to a Disney family. My father is a big fan of Disney, especially the art of their animations. He has been going to Disneyland as long as he can remember, and has made sure that it was no different for me. I was never surprised to be whisked away to the happiest place on earth after elementary school let out.
I watched the films, sang the songs, and bought the merchandise, but who didn’t? It felt natural to every young child. There was a difference though. While most grow out of Disney, there are those that stay. I did not grow out of Disney because I found that there was something more than childhood entertainment. Disney offered life lessons, values, and what I cherish most, imagination. Imagination and childhood are inexplicitly linked. The imagination is an amazing trait of being human. It allows us to make the impossible, possible; to make dreams come true.
As one grows older, it might seem that imagination fades away with youth, but it does not. Life just buries imagination under the clutter and worry. For others, to invoke the imagination is a form of being immature, but imagination is no different than being clever. Clever is the “grown-up” version of imagination. Children are very, very clever. How else can they travel to the stars and adults cannot?
The possibilities that my imagination shows me are my inspiration for living. I want to satisfy all the what-ifs and prove that the impossible is possible. I imagine life as one large choose-your-own adventure story and the best part is that cannot “save my page.” I have to follow through with each and every decision, but as long as I have my imagination I’ll always have something to look forward to.
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