As children, we can turn cardboard boxes into playhouses, soup cans into telephones, and blankets into forts. We can draw the sky purple and the cows pink. They say that children have the most honest opinions of the world. After all, children see the world not only for how it is, but how it could be.

As we grow up, we realize that Santa is simply a mall worker in a white beard and the tooth fairy is only our parents leaving some spare change behind. Thus, magic in its entirety seems to melt away leaving us stripped, cynical, and grey.

At one time, the toys we had, the grades we got, and how popular we were was the sole determinants of our happiness. Somehow, the same things still apply, only instead of wanting toys, good grades, and popularity, we want money, successful careers, and romance. Or at least, those are the things mass society tells us that we want.

So as adults, do we have time to utilize our imagination? Sure, I think about how life would be so much better with the newest iPhone and how my student loans will come to bite me in the butt, but at the same time, I'm not really imagining the possibilities. This what adulthood has started to kill.

I'm still young though. I've got the whole world ahead of me. Now, don't get me started on the whole issue with equality and privilege. Though the possibilities seem endless, is it just a mirage? Is my imagination enough to change the world?

Well, long story short, imagination is not enough to change anything. It takes huge amounts of ambition, sweat, blood, tears, and even a little disappointment to make a dent in the universe.

So keep dreaming; keep the imagination alive, and maybe just maybe we can live as free souls of our childhood selves.

xx Ella-Kol