It was March 2, 2000. We huddled around our Kindergarten teacher for Read Across America Day; nothing was better than story time. My teacher pulled out a book, colorful, illuminating, and something we hadn’t read before. She began, “Oh, the places you’ll go.”
It wasn’t my first experience with a Dr. Seuss, but it was one of my favorites, one that I always remembered. Of course, I grew up amused by the countless rhymes, watched the original Grinch Christmas (animated version from the 60’s) every year, and read The Cat and the Hat at which that time almost seemed a million but something was special about Oh, The Places You’ll Go.
Year after year, we read less and less of Dr. Seuss as we matured on from picture books into chapter books and every once in a while we still had green eggs and ham for lunch at school, but we were brought up not to read Dr. Seuss books anymore. Of course I was front row for the premiere of The Cat in the Hat movie in 2003, but after the books that once allowed me to be as creative as there is to be and not care about time, while loving endless rhymes, seemed to disappear after that.
As I grew up onto middle school and more remakes of the books were depicted into movies, I thought less and less of them as and was more into seeing PG-13 movies that were the “cool” movies. Just like that, something I had loved so much when I was younger had became more of just distant memories.
This past Fall, Kennedy put on one of my favorite musicals I’ve seen at Kennedy, Seussical. It was great, the display, the costumes, the acting, it all brought back so many memories of the Grinch, Horton Hears a Who, and all my other favorite books from when I was a kid. I came back after Seussical, and decided to look for my old Cat in the Hat book, read it again and loved it. A trip a few weeks to Family Video, also led me to watching the 2008 version of Horton Hears a Who. The week before Christmas break, in AP Psychology, we watched The Grinch and analyzed his behavior, regardless it was an educational activity, I loved it.
It all came back to me, the books long forgotten, the movies I had seen hundreds of times and what seemed to be the creativity that once allowed me to draw weird characters and watch as they came to life and especially the absurd rhymes. What Dr. Seuss taught me wasn’t how to read or how to rhyme. Dr. Seuss taught me and showed me that creativity can allow you to do anything and with a bit of creativity you can go a long way.
Of course, Dr. Seuss was one of my many things that made my childhood as great as it was but in a world where creativity is dwindling, it reminded me that there is a world of creativity still around and all you need to do is harness it. It reminded me that the creative ways of Dr. Seuss and the world of animation that I loved as a kid is still what makes me, me.
Today being the birthday of Dr. Seuss, I just wanted to pay a small tribute to say be creative. Be who you are, try new things, and let a world of imagination overcome you as it did when you were a child. Tomorrow I will see The Lorax and be as happy with it as that first day I opened a Dr. Seuss book because the silly books I once loved as a child (and always will), will allow me to be the creative person I am today and will guide me to all those places I will go.
