Adventuring

     This is a topic that is close to me because I believe I had the best childhood any child could ever ask for.It is impossible to pinpoint my first memories of play. Someone on the outside might look at my childhood and say that there was nothing spectacular about it, but to me, I look back and remember that it was nothing but spectacular. Being homeschooled along with my two sisters, and later my three younger brother, is one of the many blessing I just can't express my gratefulness for. I never remember school being a chore until I was much older. Playing was my life, as it should be for every child. Every day was a different world for my older sister and me. Being only 18 moths apart, we were partners in crime. Some days we turned our room upside down, building the most elaborate tents you can imagine, setting up shop with our collections of trinkets, to trade or sell to each other. Other days we didn't need toys at all. Pretend was probably our favorite game to play. We took every movie, mostly all Disney classics, and we would step into those characters and play for hours. My sister and I had a very complex routine for playing that could only on rare occasions be broken. From secret hand signs to designated movie characters, we had it all figured out and we were very serious about it. With every movie that we decided to play, my older sister would dictate who  my younger sister and I would get to be. She would pick the main characters, and those characters would be added to a collection of other movie characters we knew as "my guys", and no one else had any right to be that character unless she said so. It was serious business then, but makes me laugh now. I, being the second oldest, didn't mind so much that my older sister, Rachel, had the best characters because I had the second best, leaving my younger sister to the rejects. It wasn't a fair system, but that's what happens when you have older siblings. We would play for hours on end. On certain days, we were lions, from The Lion King, crawling around on all fours, this was one of our favorites. We didn't play by the rules, we changed it all up, denying the facts of physics and realism.

     
      My big sister and I shared a bunk bed in those days, she would sleep on the bottom with me above her. Every night, we watched the reflection on the mirror to see if our parents had gone to bed. If the blue glow of the TV from under their bedroom door was gone, we would whisper "the cost is clear". We then proceeded with a series of hand motions and knocks on the wall to determine if we wanted to play and what we would play. Hours into the night, we would peek through the crack between the wall and our bed, which we so creatively called "the crack." It wasn't too comfortable for me as my blood rushed to my face from looking down so long. Still, we would talk, playing pretend without even moving from our beds. It was almost like telling a story to each other, each person with specific character and part. We always waited for these nightly meeting when our younger sister had fallen asleep, but she later told us that she would just lay awake and listen to us. Today, I look back and miss those days and laugh at our ridiculous traditions. Playing was an important affair for us, every one of our 50 plus stuffed animals had a name, most of which I can still remember, every nightly session of pretend was "bookmarked" until the next morning when we would pick up where we left off. Every day was an adventurer, whether inside or out.

         Now, I'm pretty sure this made no sense to those who read it, but to me and my sisters those were the "good O'l days." It wasn't until I was about l2 and Rachel 13, did we end our adventures, deciding that we were too old to be playing. We grew bored of our imaginary worlds. I miss those days, when nothing mattered, when school was for learning and I didn't dread it. I do know, that my upbringing is the reason my sisters are my best friends, why I have the desire to learn and be successful and creative, even though the process is hard. I whole heartily believe the reason I am duel enrolled in college right now is because I was homeschooled and my parents saw the importance in playing.     

“Men do not quit playing because they grow old; they grow old because they quit playing.” 
― Oliver Wendell Holmes Jr