madison eich

Have you ever thought of your oldest childhood memory? Or your favorite? What do you think of? When I think of my childhood I always think of one of my favorite and memorable activities to do when I was a kid; playing pretend with my stuffed animals. 

As a child, I found so much comfort in having millions of stuffed animals laying all over my bed. When I got scared, they were there to console me. When I got cold, they were there to keep me warm and cozy. When I got bored, I could talk and pretend with them for what felt like hours. The pure happiness the simple stuffed toys brought me is irreplaceable. 

When I think of the word “childhood” I always try to think of the purest, happiest memories I have of my life and try to remember the feelings and emotions I had during those times. And no matter how hard I try, I can never think of anything that beats just sitting on my bed and playing pretend with my animals. I would make up new stories and imaginary lands that we would fly to when we were all supposed to be napping; I would sing to them because they all thought I had the most amazing voice; But most of all I would read to them.

In the early grades, when the teachers started teaching us how to sound out words and put sentences together, I had a really tough time. I wasn’t picking up on anything that the teachers were trying to teach me. I was getting very frustrated and self concours because all the other kids were reading so fast. No matter how many times they taught me the vowel sounds and the “silent E rule”, everything on the page still looked like gibberish. 

That was until my mom started making me read to my stuffed animals. She would sit with me while I read one of my books to my favorite stuffed pig and help me through all the words and sentences. Before I knew it, I would read by myself to all the animals who would listen. It boosted my confidence and helped me a lot.

This pictures means something a lot more to me than just playing pretend with some toys. It symbolizes how those seemingly insignificant imaginary friends got me through a tough time.