Sitting in a cardboard box with marker drawn windows and shovels for oars; you are a sailor. Six years old again, wouldn’t that be great. Back to the days where fruit snacks where a square meal and Superman was your idol. If only you could go back in time.
“Hunny, Come get your lunch!” Your mom shouted to you.
“One second mom! I’m fighting off the wild rainbow robot sharks!” You shriek in return.
“Alright, just be careful and don’t fall overboard.” She smiles and walks away.
Just as you’ve defeated the army of sharks, your stomach starts to growl. You walk down stairs and eat your bowl of Spaghetti O’s, and let your imagination run wild as you think of all the adventures you’ll be having in the upcoming days ahead of you…
Three years pass by; you’re nine years old. You’re now into any electronics you can get your hands on and rarely pick up your Batman action figure. These days your idea of imagination is fighting off virtual zombies and flying planes around the world of Xbox.
“Get down here and do your chores please!” Your mom says as she’s struggling to get her scrubs on for work. Ever since your father died three years ago, your mom has had to work every shift she could possibly fit in so that she can pay the bills.
“I’m going, I’m going.” You reply in a fatigued voice. You have finally got to level 50 in Puppies vs. Piñatas Two. BAM BAM BAM! The bat makes noises on the screen as you take each piñata down one by one. Superman is on the side watching his used to be imaginative owner, grow up like every other little girl and boy he’s ever been owned by. Each year, children grow to be a year older than the year before. And with growing up comes more responsibilities and many different interests. Early years consist of pretending to be astronauts, superheroes and doctors. Then are the tween years where video games and magazines rule the earth; and finally teenage years. By then imagination is completely gone and all they can think about is friends and partying. The movie, The Never Ending Story by Michael Ende, explains how imagination is a key thing in life, especially when another world other than your own is depending on it.
Imagination; an eleven letter word that can mean so much to some, and so little to others. It’s the thing that let’s children, teenagers and even adults be and do anything they could ever dream of. Fantasia is a magical and mystical world unlike any other. The creatures there aren’t controlled by presidents and they don’t fly on airplanes, instead they are controlled by a little boy named Bastian, and fly on dragons that aren’t as ferocious as you might think. Atreyu is a teenage boy that is also an almighty warrior in the land of Fantasia. He is trying to save the land from disappearing forever. But how could a boy so young do something so historical? Fantasia is a world in the book that is controlled by the human reading the book at that certain point and time. In this case, that person was the little boy that still had the willpower to believe and was one of the people that still had imagination, Bastian.
To continue, The Never Ending Story has everything that you could ever be looking for in the mode of romance. It all starts with the little boy named Bastian being bullied by some kids at his school. As you probably already know, bullies are something no kid wants to deal with. They are the people in this world that make people cry, people love to hurt people, and the people who make us not be able to have complete world peace. The next mild conflict is when the whole world of Fantasia starts to collapse because Bastian doesn’t believe and he starts to lose imagination. Finally in the end there is a new beginning. Fantasia is restored, everyone is safe, and Bastian still has an incredible imagination. The nothing symbolizes disbelief and loss of imagination. The amulet symbolizes infinity or “never-ending.” The amulet is given to Bastian by the child-like empress in order for him to believe in the world of Fantasia.
To conclude, imagination is something every kid should be able to experience. And for the ones who aren’t able to, we all should really feel sorry for them. Part of being a kid is having that imagination and that fun side in you. But some parents are so strict on what their children are doing all the time that those kids don’t really get to enjoy childhood. My parents let me enjoy imagination, and in the end I know that I truly appreciate it.
