Imagination

Like many children, when asked what I wanted to be, I answered with a multi-hyphenate: doctor-veterinarian-marine biologist-super spy-restauranteur-archeologist-author, at least to begin with.  Why choose one path when there were so many areas to explore?  In my child's mind, options were limitless, time infinite.  I had an imagination that could not be rivaled (or so hindsight tells me now).  At my peak of childhood creativity (sometime during fourth and fifth grade), I wrote some of my most daring stories.  True, they may have lacked sophistication and polish, but they were infused with honesty, wonder, and a genuine enthusiasm for creating the world as I had wanted it to be.  In many ways, I was still in control of what would happen next.

But sometime around sixth grade, pragmatism crept in, at first chipping away at the fragile base of my imagination and then completely blowing it away. Soon, my writing stopped being reflective of the world as I wanted it to be, but instead it became a regurgitated image of the world others wanted me to see.  I became adept at crafting essays that my teachers wanted to read, at shutting the part of my brain off that questioned why to insure I would get the praise and acceptance I so desperately wanted. A girl of my intelligence and ability was destined for great things--that is  college, maybe grad school, and a job, most likely working in a school or a corporate office. Not bad things in themselves, but not at all the path I had imagined for myself so long ago.  Still, because I hated to disappoint, I embraced this as my fate.  I managed to add a personal twist along the way (studying abroad, doing a year of volunteer service), but except for those isolated instances of rebellion, I more or less became what others thought I would.     

I know I am not alone in feeling that with maturity, the ability to re-imagine the world for the better is lost, or at the very least, muted. I am beginning to wonder, though, if it is possible for some catalyst to revive it from its dormant state. When I look at those who I deem extraordinary, the one thing I notice they have in common is a dynamic imagination unfettered from fear.  What is their secret?  Anyone out there who is willing to share how to move beyond fear and embrace the world and all its possibilities?