I work full time as a camp counselor at a local YMCA. I work with pretty young kids ranging from about five to six years old. It's a really weird thing working with them sometimes. It gives me a pretty nostalgic feeling. I sit there while we are in nature and watch them screaming and yelling about how they are in space one day and fighting Ninja Turtles the next. I didn't realize till I started working with kids this age how much imagination I had given up while getting older.

I remember counting the days down until summer vacation and bursting out the doors on those hot June days running to the bus, and itching to get off so I could go over to my neighbors house and create our own world. We used to ride around in the Barbie Jeep pretending we were on a safari, or take rotten fruit on the ground (she had fruit trees in her yard) and mix them together to concoct a magic potion. When it was raining or stormy, my sister and I had to stay inside to mix lotions and perfumes together to either make our own signature scent (because you know we are designers) or try to find the potion for ever lasting life.

I want to know where we draw that line. Where are imagination stops taking us to these fantastic worlds and instead we are stuck in reality with nearly no escape. What happened to make us so negative and bitter? What happened to the childlike wonder we had? What squandered it?

Working with these kids makes you reinvested in your imagination. Me and one of my friends at work, Brianna, were making up cheers for the campers today, and one of the little boys walked up to me today hopping around and when I asked him what he way doing he said to me "Why Ms. Jen, I'm flying my dragon!" As if it should've been clear as day.

I want it back. And these kids have given it to me. They have nearly forced me to rediscover my imagination. I'm going to call it the "Throwback Effect," the reason being I might be older than these kids but they have made me feel like I am five or six again running around the school yard making magic potions or riding in a Barbie Jeep on a safari.