I know every curve of this day like the steps that lead to my room. It means more to me than I could ever possibly explain. I cherish this memory like no other. It was the day I opened my eyes, for the first time.
It was a hot summer day, and I was wearing a yellow dress and dazzling earrings. My two friends and I were out to lunch at a restaurant I remember the food being delectable. On our way out a friendly waiter handed me a balloon the color of my dress. That balloon, it changed my world.
I looked over at my hand as it clutched a silvery string. My eyes walked up the glittery road and landed on a feast for my eyes. They hugged the image to their retinas. It floated there so peacefully, almost smiling. It danced, hand in hand, with the wind. I couldn’t remember the last time I had held a balloon. For a moment I forgot about upholding my teenager exterior. I thought about my childhood. The nostalgia ate me alive.
As children we see the world as something new. To a child everything is exciting; from the way the moon follows you when you walk, to the way you can see all the veins in a leaf. A child’s world is under a golden magnifying glass. The world around us simply bleeds into our fast paced lives. This balloon slowed me down an turned up the volume of the world.
We passed by a bronze statue of a young boy. His deep, innocent eyes evoked the sense of wisdom that I had been searching for all along. Maybe we were all born with all the wisdom we really need, we just choose to forget them simply for the sake of learning it all over again.
I felt as if this balloon had pulled me out from underwater submersion in a sea of stitched eyes. The blissful feeling that overwhelmed me cannot be described in words. It was as if I had found the key to the mysterious locked door that I never knew existed.
A wail interrupted my thoughts and redirected them. I caught the eyes of a small child; they were big, brown, and full tears. They trickled down his plump cheeks. His hair was the color of a cloud so full of water that it might burst. It sat in ringlets all over his head. His skin was the color of toffee and he was covered in small specs of the sun. I walked over to him kneeled and smiled like I was five again. The unfamiliar feeling on my face surprised me.
“ Would you like this balloon? It wants you to smile.” I said with an unrecognizable confidence.
Instantly his face broke into a smile that showed me each and everyone of his small jumbled teeth, with tears still dripping off of his chin. It was that same twinkle that you see after a storm ends and the sun emerges from its hiding spot. I handed the balloon over and he sauntered off with his newly found disposition.
I became someone different that day. The world morphed into something pretentious and exciting. With my new outlook on life, I’ve discovered so many new things. I still carry that yellow balloon with me, for the perfect dose of innocence that governs my slowly growing maturity. I’m floating off into the horizon above this sea, sometimes my head dips under. Each time I break the surface, I realize how wonderful it is to be afloat, free and aware of the beautiful world that surrounds us, like that lovely little yellow balloon.
No comments:
Post a Comment