Imaginary Friends

On a typical day during break my students separate into two groups. Three or four, depending on the day, will join the 5th graders and sit against the wall, talking about wrestling moves or PSP games. The rest usually cluster together somewhere in the middle of the playground and chat about what flavor juice their mom or maid packed. Today I noticed one of my students sitting at the far end of the playground all alone. I assumed that he was trying to hide a nice piece of chocolate or some kind of delicious treat that students are not allowed to bring to school. As I walked over I quickly scanned his Wall-E lunchbox and couldn’t see anything beyond his normal mini-sized egg sandwiches and juice box. After asking him why he chose to sit alone and he looked up and said, “I probably shouldn’t tell…” Curious as to what had happened or who hit him in line while my back was turned, I pressed on with my questions. Turns out, my student was not dining alone but rather was enjoying the company of his imaginary friend.

I can’t remember having imaginary friends when I was little. Sure, I believed that my teddy bear Amanda would come alive at night and play in my room while I was asleep but I think that was the extent of my imaginary playmates. My sister Heather, on the other hand, had three imaginary friends – Frankie, Kevin and another one whose name neither she nor I can remember. I always liked listening to my mom talk about Heather’s tea parties with her imaginary friends and her surprise when one day Heather nonchalantly said that she wouldn’t need her usual four cookies, since one of her friends had died.

Brenna, my niece, also has a vivid imagination. In her collection of imaginary friends there is Dragon, a nice dragon whose mom cuts his nails so he won’t scratch and hurt Brenna, her two sisters Meena and Anna who live in Florida and who could forget her oh so special husband Michael (aka the fire truck floaty pool toy that Brenna married a year or so ago).

I suppose the reason I never created or played with imaginary friends was because I was lucky enough to have a built in playmate and older sister who lived only one bedroom away. Although Heather and I went through our fair share of fighting and time outs in the corner we would almost always end up sneaking across the dining room to sit and play together in front of one of the heating vents until the kitchen timer went off, letting us know that we had served our time.

I smiled while walking away from my student, wondering what kind of conversation or scenario was playing through his head. On the playground I couldn’t help but think of how sweet he and his imaginary friend were, however, his friend wasn’t quite as cute later on during the day when during my spelling lesson, “he told me to be loud and calling out”. What an imagination…