My Life is Some Sort of Sitcom

My entire life from the beginning has revolved around TV, books, music, and movies. As a young child I was obsessed with PBS kids where I was exposed to the literary ingenious of Wishbone, the soft social commentary of Arthur, the diversity in characters of Sesame Street. I read the lives of saints in all my colorful little saint books. My mother sat me down and forced me to watch all the classic musicals (Singing in the Rain, Sound of Music, Mame, Peter Pan, ect.). While other children discovered Britney and Christina I was introduced to the sounds of the Rat Pack from my mother, and the classic rock of the Eagles and Meatloaf from my father.

Even as I grew older I can remember weeks and family time all planned around the holy vessel known as the television. If The West Wing was on everyone sat and watched intently pretending to know what was going on. It was particularly strange for me being so young because I had even less idea. All I can remember was a lot of walking and really fast talking and women who looked like they needed to take a nice nap. But if I tried to ask what was going on I would get yelled at because they missed some epic news like "The Earl of Nambia has been decapitated with a laser gun constructed by terrorists under the employment of Al Gore's mistress!"

And books were a huge part as well. Where was my favorite place to hang out in the horrid elementary school I was stuck in? The library! It was small and cozy with big wooden bookshelves. Filled with Nancy Drew, Animal books, magazines, and big shiny apple computers. It was a child's paradise. And we always had story time with our librarian. Who had the low and graceful voice of a world leader. Her voice was the one I heard every time I was reading.

That too carried on to high school. The CJ library was one of the main reasons I loved the school in the first place. It has dark blue carpet and even bigger wooden shelves filled with every book ever. And the lines of them create a perfect little corner right under a big window. It's in that corner where my 2 best friends and I would watch youtube videos and talk when we should have been studying. Them were great times.

And as for movies, well that goes without saying. They take the worlds I have created in my mind and then are made available for all to see. Narnia, Hogwarts, Neverland, Wonderland, Asgard. We all complain about how "The books were so much better!" But I think we take for granted the privilege we have in witnessing film. It is one man's vision conveyed to another. To share, to show the beauty in the chaos in our minds. How cool is that?

So perhaps Albert Einstein knew more than all of us when he said, "Imagination is more important than knowledge." Because Imagination has basically run my life up to this point.