I believe in success, inventions, and tree nymphs. While those things may seem completely unrelated at first, they all connect in one way. The connection is that which is some people’s drive to succeed,  to create, and to entertain. I’m talking about the imagination. The imagination is what powers humanity. Without it, we’d be nowhere.

Have you ever been teleported into the setting of a good book? Or maybe written a story? Or even gotten caught up in a movie? Any time any of these happen to us, we are using our imagination. Even when we hear something or see something that isn’t really there, that’s our imagination. Children wouldn’t be able to keep themselves occupied, there would be no dreams, and there would be no aspirations. Back when I would go to my grandparent’s house, I would run out to the back woods and play for hours with no one to keep me company but my imagination. I would use old fallen tree branches as swords and fight off enemies in medieval warfare, I would build houses for me and my friends to live in, I would ride horseback through a snowy kingdom, I would run my kingdom from atop my castle. Obviously, I wasn’t a knight at five, or a king at ten, but I could always escape to the woods to become whatever I wanted to be. And without my dear, old friend, Imagination, I wouldn’t have been able to be anything but bored.

We all know that feeling when we accomplish something that we set out to do. We all love that feeling. It comes from our brains releasing dopamine, the “feel-good chemical,” whenever we get something right or accomplish something. But without imagination, we wouldn’t have any ideas to put into action to accomplish. So without imagination, nothing would get accomplished at all! In tenth grade, my English teacher decided to give us some homework. It was to write a “This I Believe Essay.” For four days, I sat thinking, in all my waking hours, about what topic I wanted to write about. It wasn’t until the day before she said it was due that I  came up with a topic. I said to myself, “Self, use that overactive imagination of yours to conjure up the most insane topic for an essay ever.” Then it hit me, I would write about the very thing that was failing me, my imagination. And it would be about how the imagination is the single greatest thing to ever happen to humanity. It was then that I realized that our imagination is the cause of success.

Have you ever used electric light? Maybe ridden in or even driven a car? Or maybe used a computer? Or read an essay? Or used something metal? Any of these things wouldn’t be possible without inventors and ideas. To have any ideas, you need to have an imagination. And to have an invention you need an idea. Behind every great idea is an overly active imagination. While it is a great distraction, imagination can also be of use to everybody.

If you’re like me and have an overactive imagination, then don’t let anyone tell you it’s childish to imagine things. The greatest minds always have the vastest realms in their mind's eye.  Never let anyone get you down for imagining greatness. Play make-believe with your little brother, tea party with your little sister, play in the woods with your cousin, and create new things. I believe that the power of the imagination is the greatest power known to man.