Creative Prompt: Draw Something You Wanted As A Kid, But Never Got
Like Mickey Mouse ears, maybe?
In the 90s, in Disney World, all the coolest kids wore mouse ears. I wanted those mouse ears so bad I was drooling.
My mom said, “When are you ever going to wear those again? They’re going to wind up in a landfill.”
No ears. My head: bare.
What did you want when you were a kid? Would you maybe like to draw it?
Go big. Go abstract. Go weird. The literal reality of the Mouse ears (right) or the fantasy silly version of the mouse ears (left)? EITHER ONE.
There is no desire too embarrassing.
Mickey Mouse ears, stuffed animals, Nerf guns, sweet Huffy bikes, those ADIDAS pants that snapped off all at once.
Draw your whole wish list.
There’s a good ending to my story, BTW, if you care.
I finally got the ears, y’all!
This year — at the tender age of 40 — my husband and I went to Disneyland. The mouse ears had gone beyond the cap + round sides. They were now fully custom to your interests. There are HUGE displays EVERYWHERE in the park that look like this:
You like the Haunted Mansion? Of COURSE! There’s a selection just for you:
Wanna peep a few MORE options?
If your favorite Pixar movie is UP, this pair exists:
… Wait a second, who’s that? Is that… ME?1
That’s right, at 40 I got my first pair of mouse ears. After a lifetime of yearning, they were finally mine.
My husband, unlike my mother, cannot stand to watch me whine and pine for things. He’s fine with throwing away $35 on something that might not have a lot of re-wear value. The cookie/icing/cake THING I’m holding2, in addition to the Cold Brew, was probably almost $35 and that was gone in 5 minutes.
Also, I’d like to inform our environmentalists that these are NOT in a landfill. I am keeping them forever on display in my studio:
They’re resting on a preserved bat my dad had in his office for 40 years. (The instant he retired, I claimed it as my own.)
Think about what you wanted as a kid. What does it say about you? Can you draw it for me to see, please?
My glasses are taped shut because the frames snapped as I was just… walking? I cried. A staff member sent me to First Aid. The lovely staff there worked Disney Magic with surgical tape so I could continue my day.
The snack was a condolence prize for the glasses tragedy. The inside of that pile of icing looked like this:
Decadence.