Imagination is a Childs Reality... or Maybe a Better Understanding.

Kids are Kids And Kids Don't Care!

When I was just about 5 years old I couldn't understand why some kids had different views of different people. I always thought that people were people and the things that weren't people were animals or aliens. But one day a little girl with hair the color of honey and skin the color of my freshly cleaned and ironed socks called me a name and spit on the only splash of purple in the hallway, my brand new first day of school sneakers. I didn't exactly understand but it hurt my feelings and I and nearly had a fall out over my now sticky, yucky, and dirty shoes.
The next day she came to me and pulled my favorite book out of my hand. When she couldn't read it she through the book across the room and said
"Fetch me that stupid book you were reading"
Instead I went and picked up the fairytale book of another girl who loved to read with an imagination as big as mine, 'Alice in Wonderland'. I went to another corner. But no matter what I did she would always mess with me.

A child doesn't always see the world for what it is. But that might be the true meaning of the " Ignorance is Bliss." In a preschool you may have many different races and all of the will play no matter what. But a work place full of adults will fight simply over the skin color of the person that works in the cubicle next to them. In a child's world time means nothing and as long as another person is willing to be your friend you don't care.

As a girl you have to follow in the role of a girl grow up do your hair wear dresses cook clean, but most of all be pretty proper and adoring. As a black female it is more difficult to get around in this world. And it really doesn't help to grow up with an unknown background such as mine. Or if you like to fight and wrestle with your dad and mom and other girls want to play dolls and dress-up. Of course I did those things but once you do wrong no one focuses on the good but they make your socially committed crimes bigger than what they are. "A girl like her shouldn't be doing that it seems that that mother of hers is terrible on her own." My mother was going through a very difficult time and it seemed I was only making it worse for her by being black and a female and doing boy things that weren't really boy things.

As a female child the imagination has to be stronger to escape a social prison. Unlike boys who can be dirty and free. A girl has to be seen as a prize. After a while my mother began to lecture me on how to be a lady.
"Ladies don't spit" " Ladies don't pull up their shirt." " Ladies don't play in dirt" She became as strict as anyone could be. It was a world in which every girl must live and I used my imagination to escape there was no reason to actually run away but I ALWAYS had time to imagine my best friends in my room for tea parties.
I realize that as a child while I was growing up I wasn't meant to grow up and be successful. I was supposed to fail. But I didn't fail and that's the best part of a child's imagination it's not bad, it's their way to get through the world their parents created.