The Sum of the Parts of Me
First of all, let’s get something straight – I never want to grow up. I never want to lose that childlike fascination with the world and with how things work. I never want to not be able to ride the shopping cart down the aisle to customers’ delight and the manager’s frown. I never want to stop admiring the flowers when they bloom and squealing with delight as I watch the baby bunnies hopping around the yard each spring.
Since I was a child, I always wanted to be an astronaut. I wanted to go into the final frontier and help the human race expand beyond itself into places unknown, discovering more about who we were and are and could be in the process. But I don’t qualify for the program, at least under the current rules. I will make it into space only after I die and my ashes are scattered in the great unknown. So be it – I will still go.
Mostly, I want to leave a legacy. I want to write poems and stories that reach people and touch them where they are vulnerable, making them question who they are and what they want to do. I want to expand horizons – theirs and mine – letter by letter, word by word. I want to know that what I have contributed is valuable in some way to some person, and that, by doing what I do, I have made a difference. Knowing that, I would be happy, and I would continue on to find the next person I can reach.