You’re Never Too Old to Sleep in Cartoon Pajamas

Before you read any further, I want you to stop and think for a moment, when you were a child, who was your favorite cartoon character? It can even be right now. Who is your favorite cartoon character at this very moment? I personally have several. As a child, my favorite cartoon characters were the Ghostbusters as seen in ‘The Real Ghostbusters’. I would like to add that it is un-American to not love the Ghostbusters. Now, my favorites, that’s right, favorites, are Rock Lee from ‘Naruto’, Piccolo from ‘Dragonball Z’, and Zuko from ‘Avatar: The Last Airbender’. Thinking about any of the characters I just listed, I had to actively stop myself from smiling. I’d be willing to bet that you did the same when I told you to think about your favorite cartoon character.

When you’re a child, the sky seems to be the limit. We have never-ending dreams, dreams so raw and pure that they can’t even truly be called ambitions, and we dream them freely. At that moment in our lives, magic is real, and there’s nothing that can’t come true. Cartoons give us a great outlet for that. It’s a peak into make-believe worlds of fantasy and magic, heroism and valor, as well as talking anthropomorphized sponges. 

As we get older, we tend to let life get the better of us. Life has knocked us down, taught us we have limits. It showed us we have boundaries, and we may even have a couple of scars to prove it. It can be hard not to buckle underneath life. We cope with its stresses by becoming what we think is the best version of ourselves. That usually means being straight-laced, responsible, and doing our duty to ourselves and our family. That’s all well and good except for one issue, and it’s a big issue. That issue is, we’re lying to ourselves. We fill our minds with these beliefs and self-imposed limitations because we can’t imagine that we can do better. We lose our ability to dream. We tell ourselves that we’re too old, too fat, too dumb, that that opportunity past us by.

It’s rough to think about, but in that regard, that’s where we need to let ourselves be a kid again and reconnect with our inner child. That child growing up in some ways understood more about the world than you probably do now. If you can imagine the possibility, with that same hard work and drive that you've used in other areas in life, you can make that possibility a reality. 

Cartoons can be a great outlet for that. They can teach us simple yet valuable lessons that we've simply forgotten along the way, and that maybe, just maybe, there’s real magic in the world after all. 

So stop reading, order some pajamas sporting your favorite cartoon character, and dream of the possibilities your life has in store for you.