Draft 1.2 - Director's Cut

The assignment was to expand somewhat on the previous work. However, I was limited to 800 words, +/- 50 wiggle room words. The essay I submitted was 848 words long according to OpenOffice's word count, but I'd to put up here the original version, including the 100+ words that were omitted.

My dad owns a beach house near the New Jersey coast. As a kid, I used to spend many summers there with my family, swimming in the surf and playing in the sand. One year, I believe it was between the 6th and 7th grades, I went for a walk along the beach with my brothers and a few friends. We had gotten bored, hot, and thirsty, so we were looking for a water fountain. For some reason, the city planners had decided that no one would ever want running water when sitting out in the sun on a bed of dry sand in front of an ocean of salt water, and had placed the fountains much too far apart, in our minds. Eventually, we came across one, about two blocks from our towel where we had started, only to find a small boy putting his lips to the spout. “Hey, you can't do that,” we told him. “That's gross.” His reaction sounded almost rehearsed, and with a stilted voice, he told us cheerily “I can do whatever I want.” We told him that, no, he couldn't do that, and he got upset and ran to get his dad. My party decided that his dad might have been mad, so we left rather than find out.

It was a seemingly innocuous event in the grand scheme of things, but for some reason, that kid's voice has always stuck with me. Most people might see the above scenario as a basic example of the conflict between overlapping freedoms (his to put his lips to the fountain versus ours to not drink from a gross water fountain). When I heard the kids voice though, and whenever I relive the event in my head, I hear a childish version of the echoes of a thousand parents telling their children that they have unlimited potential, and can do anything if they set their minds to it. Through my own experience, however, I have come to realize that, in fact, children do not have limitless potential. Through no fault of the anyone, barriers are in place to keep children from reaching any goal they dream of.

What sort of barriers are there for children, though? Certainly, leaps and bounds have been made in child raising and education, so that any children has the capability to know enough or have the skills to be an astronaut, or the president, a famous athlete, or whatever their heart may desire. Discrimination, though unfortunately still existent, has diminished significantly and is rarely a realistic barrier to any opportunity. But not every child can be an astronaut, or president, or a professional athlete. For instance, my youngest cousin Clara is a very smart and charismatic little girl. Granted, she's only two, but my aunt would be the first to tell you that she could be president some day. Unfortunately, though she's now as much a red blooded Texan as her parents, Clara was born in China and adopted at the age of one. She can't be president, no matter how well qualified she is, simply because of a little matter of chance. I often wonder at the ideas we fill our children with. We tell them early and often that they can reach any goal they put their minds to, and to always live the dream. We don't like to think about the things they cannot do, and often try our best to ignore these barriers. I'd like to make it clear that most of these barriers are not some sort of limits on personal freedoms. I am glad to live in a country where governmental restrictions are extremely low, and cherish these freedoms greatly. However, there are issues that cannot be legislated.

For instance, I have my own “I can do whatever I want” story. I love flying. I play flight simulators whenever I can, and even today fantasize about being able to soar in the sky and beyond. I wanted to be an astronaut when I was a child, or at the very least a pilot. Unfortunately, I was also born with a congenital heart defect. The details of it are largely irrelevant, and today I can live out a normal life. But I cannot fly. Simply having this heart defect is a guarantee that no company, private or public, will allow me to operate an airplane, let alone a spacecraft of any sort. Due to simple chance and happenstance, I am barred from reaching the childhood dreams which I was told by all my early teachers I could achieve no matter what. How many other children are in similar situations?

I've put a good deal of thought into this. I'm often caught by little things, like a recent TV commercial for an investment form that claims it will help your children reach their dreams, including one little boy who asks “Can I be a superhero?” The voice-over answers “Yes,” which is clearly false. No amount of financing, Wayne fortune or not, can turn a kid into a superhero. Of course, my mom will tell you that it's good to encourage a child's dreams, and I'd definitely agree with that. At least, I know that telling a boy “No, you can't be an astronaut, play with your Play-Doh McDonald's instead” would be a damaging thing. My friends however, also agree that it may not be the best thing to let a child believe he is capable of absolutely anything. There is a very sad reason why Superman Halloween costumes are stitched with the phrase “will not make you fly”: at least one child thought it would.

Now here's a challenge. Try and guess what I had to pull to make it fit? Btw, I'll prolly get marked off for a poor closing paragraph, but I simply had no room for anything more. Stupid limits. X_X

CURSE MY NATURAL SHOWMANSHIP!