In primary school I will admit I wasn’t the coolest of
kids. But in my adolescents I did
go through a chapter as a nine year old that I like to refer to as the wonder
year. It consisted of me renaming myself Wolf Blitzer, exclusively wearing the
color lime green, and refusing to eat anything that wasn’t a chicken nugget in
the shape of a T-Rex…while I binge-watched the golden girls on TV.
Lets put it this way, I wasn’t quite cool enough to play
four square with the popular kids at recess. The Blitz was a lone wolf who got
her socializing skills from observing Betty White on television….it’s a real
relief I wasn’t into the Cosby show hey. Character building at its finest.
As the millennium rolled, Miss W. Blitz had perfected her
signature and was signing it in cursive on all formal school assignments. To this day I considered this a big
middle finger to the provinciality of Sequoyah elementary school. And I thank
my parents for being hippies and endorsing my sole searching CNN anchor wannabe
phase but it was the year of my 10th birthday when I broke the
Blitz’s cover. My diabolical mother bought me a truly noteworthy present that
shook up the game. As I unwrapped
my gift, my eyes light up with wonder. Low and behold I was the proud owner of a
princess jasmine suitcase. As I
continued to open the suitcase I found a simple card that read
My Dearest Dana
The world is out
there. Make sure not to miss it.
Let me tell you right now, I wheeled that suitcase to school
everyday, and then on every family vacation from Orlando to Rome. I thought I was the dopest thing to hit
planet earth since sliced bread. And when you’ve got a princess Jasmine
suitcase/ matching fannypack / and sun visor Wolf Blitzer and the color lime
green got thrown clear out the window.
I quote back to this anecdote from my past, as I didn’t need
a magic carpet to take flight. My mother gave me the gift of the world with a
Disney princesses face plastered onto it. She wanted me to see what was out
there and opened my eyes to the possibilities. She gave me the freedom and gumption to leave at seventeen and
see what this world had to offer.
To lose myself and not look back. And to eventually find the real Dana
somewhere out there along the way.
Fast forward to now, seven years since I left home. As I returned
home from a near death experience and a crazy summer in Greece I felt estranged
and not quite myself, a bit lost. I’ve come home with no money to my name, no job and no real
idea of what the hell I am going to do with my life. Its strange coming home to live under your parents roof after a while...let alone seven years. I honestly felt like packing
up and moving right back to Neverland because I am a lost boy threw and threw.
Until today, when I cleaned out my room and dusted out my
Princess Jasmine suitcase. The contents of the suitcase 14 years later include;
a pair of binoculars, the movie Hook, a copy of “Oh The Places You Will Go” by
Doctor Suess, an actual signed photo from Wolf Blitzer and every postcard and
letter I’d sent home to my parents since I left home.
In that moment I had come full circle. Left a scared
seventeen year old kid and come back an even more scared twenty four year old “adult”. But right then and there I was at complete peace with the world.
And now I suppose am ready to embrace being home...as life is an adventure and as my 10th birthday
card read: the world is out there and I’m sure as fuck not going to miss it.
