ABOUT THIS PORTFOLIO

"For in every adult there lies the child that was, and in every child there lies the adult that will be"

 

 

When I started this class I had no plan of what I was going to write - I tried to do things off impulse - to explore myself. What did I find?

 

I wrote a Why I Write essay that explored my childhood and I wrote two assignments about warfare.

 

When I came to the final assignment - the context piece - I was baffled. I had no idea how I was going ot find a theme fo rmy context assignment that could combine both war and childhood.

 

it was in this state of confusion that I wrote our blog entry about what we wanted to do for our context piece. I've always wanted to write a children's story - so that's what I wrote for my blog entry. I didn't say that I wanted to do it for my context assignment, I was just tired and had a blog entry due and write that I've always wanted to write a children's book.

 

Amazingly, the more I thought about it hte more I could see a children's story coming together. So for my context assignment I made a story outline and a few concept drawings.

 

Thinking about htis chidlren's story finally helped me see a connection between war, childhood, and yself - the three things I wrote about this year.

 

 

 

 

I wrote the story about children, imagination, and superheroes of a reason, because, on the brink of adulthood, I want to look back and think about what it is to be a child

 

When I was a child I was a dreamer. I dreamed fantastic worlds filled with heroes and villains and epic wars. I drew it all. At night I sometimes would put my drawings under my pillow, hoping that all the things I imagined would become real in my dreams. I wanted to be a superhero - I wanted to have superpowers - I wanted to put on a cape and change the world.

 

What makes someone a child? In many ways I think I stil am one. I have tried hard to cling to the joy to learn, the awe of the world, and the desire to make my dreams real that characterized my childhood. Many people have the child squeezed out of them by the hard parts of life. It's hard to remain a child.

 

But what makes a child grow up? Do adults leave the dreams of childhood behind? Do they have to forsake their 'juvenile' imagination in the search of something mature?

 

I don't think so. I think that growing up doesn't mean losing your childhood - it means retaining it. I believe the desire to be a superhero - the desire to put on the cape - is what makes someone grow up to have a incredible life. kids who dream aren't juvenile, they're the most mature ones around us. They are the ones patient enough to wait until they can make their dreams real - they never give up on their imagination.

 

On the brink of adulthood, looking both back and forward, I can see one thing that has changed. Everything that used to only be possible in dreams seems possible. See It's the dreamers around us, the people who never lose the vigor and imagination of childhood, who change the world.

 

Kid's who spend their whole childhoods dreaming to become superheroes never actually grow up - they just put on their capes and fly out into the world.