My Imaginary Friend Essay, Research Paper

MY IMAGINARY FRIEND

Unlike so many children my age, I had an imaginary friend. When I had no one to play with, she was always there. Her name was Sarah, she was everything that I was not. Sarah had blonde hair and blue eyes. She was petite and always wore the coolest clothes not hand-me-downs like me. No one ever made fun of Sarah!

Sarah came to me one day while I was swinging on my front porch. I would sit there and hope for a school friend to come and play, but no one came. I imagined Sarah with a small voice and a big heart. She wanted to do whatever I wanted to do and she never argued with me. I also imagined that Sarah came from the very rich side of town, and her parents were the best of parents. However, they would have to go on business trips, and Sarah always stayed at my house. Sometimes they would stay gone for weeks, so having my imaginary friend Sarah around all the time was just what I had wanted.

Sarah and I always went on adventures together. When my mom would have me gather vegetables from our modest garden, we always made sure we picked the ripest vegetables. I would imagine we were slaves that worked on a plantation. While we worked under the hot July sun Sarah and I would sing our favorite songs. Singing always seem to get our minds off of the heat. As always Sarah worked right beside me, and she never complained. When we were done mom would always made sure we had some ice-cold lemonade waiting on us. Sometimes my mom would have me wash dishes and I would imagine that we were working in a fancy restaurant. The dishes would begin to pile up on us so we had to work our fingers to the bone to get caught up. One of our favorite adventures was sailing on the high seas pretending to be pirates. I had a big tree house and Sarah and I would pretend we were pirates. We would look for lost treasure by looking through her magic binoculars, and would find some pretty neat treasures too. We would even play Dr. Dolittle while we gathered eggs from the hen house. Because I was scared of the mean roosters, Sarah would get their attention so I could sneak past them and get the eggs. This was always fun, but it also had its drawbacks, getting plucked or spurred by the hens and roosters wasn t fun.

Sarah would always help me get ready for school. She would make sure I wore the coolest of clothes. We would sit around and play dress up, seeing who could look the coolest. Sarah would always let me win. Sometimes as I would be fixing my hair Sarah would say, My don t you look pretty today. Sarah would always make me feel very special, like the time I thought I had lost my gold teardrop necklace. It was very special to me because my grandmother had given it to me on my 8th birthday. Sarah helped me look for it until finally, we found it under the bed. I loved the times when we were alone because it was our own little world.

The children at school would often pick on me, or make fun of me and they were not polite like Sarah was. Sarah would always console me. She would say, Those kids will never know a true friend, don t let them upset you. Somehow she would always make me feel better. I did learn that not all the kids were mean, just some of them. Nevertheless, I would always make sure I was nice and polite to all the kids, because that is what Sarah and my mother had taught me.

My mother never liked Sarah. When I would talk about her mother would always get upset. Sometimes I would upset my mom by telling her not to sit on Sarah, or I would ask her where Sarah s plate was. Mother thought something was wrong with me. She would say, It s not healthy for a little girl to be talking to someone who s not there, It s just not . Then mom started having these mother-to-daughter talks with me. She would always tell me that Sarah was not real. I would let her say what she needed to say because I knew Sarah was just as real as I needed her to be.

Time ran its course, and a year had gone by. I was now 10 years old, and full of spunk. Even though Sarah and I didn t play as much anymore, she was always in my thoughts and I had not forgotten about her. Sarah was still just as real to me, as that first day. Only now our main subject was my new friends and of course the boys, especially Paul. We had many discussions about him. Sarah thought he was cute, and so did I.

Paul was a cute and very nice boy. I think over time he had become one of my best friends, and Sarah understood. Paul and I started spending a lot of time together, and Sarah was becoming more and more less. I was starting to realize that Sarah was an imaginary being, but she helped me through my tough times. Sarah helped me understand a part of me I was afraid to discover, and when Paul came along, that part of me developed into a beautiful little girl wanting to explore the world and take all it had to offer. I finally said goodbye to Sarah, but my memories of her will always live forever.

As I look back at that time in my life, I had so many good memories of my imaginary friend Sarah. She helped me build confidence in myself, and even though she was just an inner-part of me, I believe she had a good impact on my childhood life. I am now married with two daughters of my own. As a parent I hope they both get to experience a childhood like mine. With an imaginary friend like Sarah, I know their lives will be richer. Not all imaginary friends are bad like people think, they add a unique childhood memory. A memory I shall never forget.