It’s not that I had an imaginary friend…
It was more like I would get so caught up in a story that the characters would never leave me. After I left a book or a film or a cartoon, a troupe of characters was always following close behind. They lived in my mind, but they walked with me, talked with me. We acted and played together.
The greatest stories that captured my imagination as a child were stories like: The Hobbit, The Mists of Avalon, anything to do with dragons and unicorns, Greek Mythology (any world mythology really), Mortal Kombat (90s kid), The Legend of Zelda, Dragon Ball Z, and the works of Miyazaki, just to name a few.
Aw yeee, Link to the rescue!
As I got older, my tastes grew and all I wanted to do was read and read and read. Anything I read became a part of the world I lived in and I carried it with me wherever I would go. The Outsiders, Jane Austen, Jack Kerouac, Dorothy M. Johnson, and Harry Potter (duh), to name a few.
Aaaaand this really hasn’t stopped. I still have my imaginary world I love to live in. Sometimes, that world seems more real to me than this world does. My imagination has never stopped growing and I still try to hold onto my childish sense of wonder!
I think we all can afford to have a bit of an imagination ^_^
This is still the world I visit the most.
As I’ve grown, my characters have grown. Situations and stories in my mind have developed and changed. And the original characters in my brain are starting to make it onto their own pages. People and places that have never been written down before or known to anyone else besides myself.
I think imaginary friends grow imagination and creativity and I don’t think I’ll ever stop having them around, inviting them over. And if I ever want to visit them, they’re just a page away.
Does anyone have a favorite world or character they met in a book/movie/video game that follows them around? Share with me, I’d love to know!
Slim Crescent Moon 