Tonight Matthew, I'm going to be... Little Red Riding Hood

   There are two kinds of world that we can live in if we so choose: the physical or the imaginary. Sometimes, we want to live our lives as they appear around us. We want to ‘do’. Other times, we want to consciously create a different life scenario, in which we want to ‘think’. But when these boundaries collide, we are left believing that something real is, in fact, something else. Imaginations are extraordinary concepts. As a young girl, I honestly believed I was a mermaid. I re-enacted the memorable ‘splash-on-the-big-rock’ scene from The Little Mermaid during every bath time (never without the accompanying reprise of ‘Part of that World’, may I add).

   Today was another one of those days: a day when you go about your day as Normal You but the surrounding areas appear to feel somewhat different, transporting you to a Whole New World (cue Jasmine and Aladdin). While taking my usual route to Uni, I felt like I was no longer Rosie Heather Roman. I was no longer just another student in just another student town. I was indeed, Little Red Riding Hood and my mission: Operation Grandma’s.

   I accepted my mission immediately and continued with my journey. I had reached an alleyway. It was the same alleyway that I have walked through every day for 4 months, but it was no longer just an alleyway. It was a forest. It was an obstacle. The way the leaves crunched beneath my feet, the way the mist had settled between the walls and how this felt around me convinced me of my new found fictional character status. And at that point, I became the perfect Little Red Riding Hood archetype, swinging my bag of Uni books at my side.

  Yet, I never reached Grandma’s and my role as Little Red Riding Hood was short-lived. The spell had been broken. The early morning rush hour traffic that signalled the end of the alleyway was also my cue to leave the Little Red Riding Hood persona behind. I was now back in the real world and on my way to my 9am seminar. I was Rosie Heather Roman. I was just another student. And the alleyway was once again, just another alleyway.

   But I was not convinced. It made me realise how influential the imagination is. Still, as an adult, I can be dreamily swept away into the depths of my own thoughts, regardless of the physical world around me. I realised that I can be whoever I want to be, whenever I want to be them. I can create. So, I am not just another student. I am a million ideas waiting for the perfect opportunity.