Journal Prompt #3

"Both stories we read today deal with points of no return; is there a place that you feel you can't return to? At what point did you realize you couldn't return?"

Although I reached a "point of no return" differently than the main characters in Sandra Cisneros' "One Holy Night" and Antonio Farias' "Red Serpent Ceviche", the sense of loss was felt the same by the three of us. My point of no return arises in the sense of a lost childhood. To be honest, my point of no return seems in no way as life-changing as the main characters of the stories we read today. My experience, although somewhat depressing, may be reversed if only for a temporary amount of time.

It happened over the course of the last two summers, in addition to the fact that I turned 21 last year in September 2010. The first incident happened in June 2010 when Toy Story 3 was released. Andy, the owner of the toys in the movie, gives up his toys in the end to a young toddler girl. That scene really reached a sense of that loss for me, and of course, I teared up. The realization that I had grown up with these characters since I was barely a six-year-old, and who, were all of a sudden, moving onto a younger generation made me realize the acceptance that needed to take place on my part: that I was growing up and that the children with toys and who run around my cul-de-sac were now the children, and not me. The idea of leaving childhood behind me as a child was always so distant, but at the same time made me feel grown-up. As a young adult, it's turned into both responsibility and fear of what may come. The second incident happened this last summer, July 2011, when Harry Potter and the Deathly Hallows: Part Two came out. Having read all seven books, discussed characters with friends and going to all the movie premieres, one can't help to grow an attachment to the story, especially the characters themselves. For my generation, one can state almost certainly that we literally grew up with the main characters. Their fears were our fears, their laughs were our laughs, and the world watched and cheered for Harry as the franchise came to an end. My sadness over the end of it all, was actually not because there was no more Harry Potter, it was the idea that the real actors were going to be moving on, and so would I. I felt like the last movie was my last hurrah as child, and as a matter-of-fact, it has been. Since then I have let go of a lot of childish things and have tried adapting to a "young adult" mindset. My goals have become more mature, not to mention realistic.

The reason why I mentioned before that I feel like my point of a return is less drastic, is because I can choose to be a kid at heart at times if I'd like. I know that being a child isn't something I can obtain permanently anymore though; I can never own childhood in that proper way of being an actual 2 to 17 year old. The parallel is just that: the characters from the stories have a future that will never be the same, as do I.