"I BELIEVE I CAN FLY"

Have you ever wanted something so badly that the desire consumed you? Was it something you wanted as a child or as an adult? What was it that you wanted?

When I was a kid, I would spend several weeks at my grandparents' house in the Black Hills of South Dakota. I have so many fond memories from those small-town, summer days: marching in a local parade, tasting buffalo for the first time, taking in the Fourth of July Festival events, and watching numerous softball games up behind the high school, which sits high on the hill across town.

But for me, one memory sticks out more than all the others. It was the year that I discovered the Flying Nun. It was the summer that I was about eight years old. In the evenings, we would watch reruns of old shows like Leave it to Beaver, Father Knows Best, and I Love Lucy on the Nickelodeon channel's Nick-At-Nite programming.

The flying nun, played by Sally Field, wore a unique habit that allowed her to fly--upright like Marry Poppins! When I saw that, something internally sprang to life. My heart would jump whenever the Sister Bertrille placed her small hand atop her head and lifted off the ground. I wanted to fly--but not in an airplane. I wanted to free-fly, just like Sister Bertrille. I wanted it so badly, I could almost feel what it would be like. I remember climbing some steps on the back of the house and jumping from the stoop to the ground, pretending that I could fly. I just knew that somehow it was possible and that someday, I would make it happen.

My grandmother noticed how obsessed I had become with this desire, and so she made a powerful suggestion that changed my life. "Whenever there is something that I want really badly, sometimes it helps to sit down and write about it." I took my Abuela's advice, and I sat down and began to write. I don't remember what I wrote, but I remember that it worked.

She took my story and submitted it to a small periodical that she subscribed to, called Capper's. It was printed in a feature called the "Kids' Corner". I felt so proud. My desire had been validated. It was that simple act that lead me from a futile (and potentially dangerous) effort of trying to fly from the back porch and directed my creativity and imagination into a more rewarding endeavor--writing.

There is something about writing out my opinions and feelings that brings clarity to my thinking. And that is why I write. Will I ever fly upright? I doubt it. But I still believe I can fly. Crafting thoughts, ideas and imaginations into words and sentences, I can soar through imaginary lands or unfamiliar circumstances. I can have a hundred careers and meet a thousand fascinating and unique people. Perhaps it's still a fragment of that feeling I had as a child that drives my desire to write and the experience the freedom of expression that writing offers to me. And I suspect it is that same anticipation that keeps me riveted to the television when David Blaine or Criss Angel levitate and float across the sky.