Thursday, April 4, 2013

Emily

My "E" post is going to force me to confess something.

I had an imaginary friend. And her name was Emily.

I kept her so secret that when I told my mom I was going to write a post about Emily, she had no idea what I was talking about. She never even realized I had an imaginary friend. See, I am the youngest in my family, and I knew that my brother and sister would make fun of me if they knew about Emily. So I just kept her a secret. I only talked to her in my room or if I was playing outside by myself. I mostly talked to her when I would ride my bike or walk over to my friend Amy's house. Amy lived around the block, and I went to her house nearly every day to play, so Emily and I got a lot of talking in then. I don't remember our conversations, but I do remember having her with me a lot. I was a very, very shy kid, but I liked talking to her because I didn't have to feel stupid if I said something wrong.

I also named one of my dolls Emily, and she was my favorite doll. She was the kind you could take in the bathtub and pool, so she was with me a lot. She had red curly hair like Orphan Annie. She's still sitting in the closet of my parents house, and one day if I have a daughter, she will inherit my sweet Emily doll.

I have a little bit of a theory about imaginary friends, and you can go ahead and call me crazy if you want to, but I really feel like they are not necessarily friends but more of guardian angels. Someone to talk to and tell your worries to. Maybe a direct line to God. Maybe all those times I was talking to Emily, I was actually praying, and I didn't even realize it. Again, just a theory, and maybe I'm totally wrong. Either way, I'm thankful to God for creating my imagination and giving me Emily.

There comes an age in everyone's life when you stop playing dolls and you forget about your imaginary friends. But Emily is still one of my favorite names. In fact, I recently started writing a fiction novel, and Emily is the name of the main character. There's got to be some kind of psychological reasoning for that.

So thank you, Emily, for being there for me and for listening to me. Even though you were imaginary, you were the best friend I had growing up, and I thank you for sending my worries and thoughts directly to God.

Bonus: Here's a song from Lady Antebellum titled Emily. I was stuck on "e" post and this song came on. I couldn't believe I hadn't thought of Emily before.


Did you have an imaginary friend?

22 comments:

tomwisk said... Add Reply

I had an imaginary friend too. He was a kid my age who I talked to, in whispers. He heard my secrets.

Lucy said... Add Reply

Ah, I love your thought that your imaginary friend was a guardian angel! Great song :)

Anonymous said... Add Reply

Spooky! The name Emily reminds me of the movie "The exorcisms of Emily Rose" :) I always talked to myself and went crazy laughing. Split personality?

Akhil.

Shari said... Add Reply

What's this about writing a novel? Details, please!!!! :)

Deanna said... Add Reply

I don't think I had an imaginary friend, but my oldest daughter did. He was named Karmarka. She was quite a bit younger than you were, maybe only three and talked to Karmarka all the time. Finally one day she was watching TV and said "there's my friend!". It was Bob Barker.

She named her oldest daughter Emily. It is a beautiful name.

Deena said... Add Reply

great post. glad i'm not the only who bares all on her blog :)

Shilpa Garg said... Add Reply

I liked your thoughts of imaginary friends as Guardian Angels and that they are someone to talk to and tell your worries to.

orneryswife said... Add Reply

I don't really remember whether or not I had an imaginary friend. I do remember talking to myself a lot, but I don't suppose that counts. I was NOT shy as a child. :)

Thanks for your comment. Letters = love. :)
tm

Colin Smith said... Add Reply

I'm sure psychologists have lots of theories about imaginary friends. I don't recall having any, but my kids have them. And they talk to us about them quite openly. I suppose that's one advantage to having a father who's a writer--such things aren't strange to me. I love that my kids have active imaginations. :)

Amber said... Add Reply

I don't remember having an imaginary friend, but my youngest does. He's Invisible Man. Invisible Man has a whole Invisible family that sometimes comes to live with us and sometimes go to the dark side. I love imagination. And having someone to talk to, whether you're the only one who can see them or not, is a good thing!

Thanks for stopping by my blog earlier!

http://sanitysoverrated.blogspot.com

Unknown said... Add Reply

I love your theory about imaginary friends! I think you are right about them. Lovely post!

Kathy
http://gigglingtruckerswife.blogspot.com

dayebydaye said... Add Reply

Love this! I think everyone tries to make sense of the world and for some the imaginary friend is the best way to do that.
Great post!!! Makes me wonder if my kids have imaginary friends...

Rob-bear said... Add Reply

All friends are wonderful, real or imaginary.

Blessings and Bear hugs!
Bears Noting

Barbara White Daille said... Add Reply

Hi, Megan - great blog post. No, I never had an imaginary friend and sometimes think I missed out.

On the other hand, I've always been a writer, with characters running around in my head, so I actually had lots of company. ;)

Barbara
E is for Evidence Found in A to Z
The Daille-y News

Amanda Trought said... Add Reply

Megan, lovely post, thanks for sharing, I don't remember having an imaginary friend, though at times I wish I had one when I was younger. I had a younger brother and we did quite a lot together, on our adventures we had imaginary friends who would help us fight aliens in the park.

Amanda - Realityarts-Creativity
Art Blog

Unknown said... Add Reply

At least you talked to an imaginary friend and not yourself... Not that I'm talking about myself. This is all hypothetical. haha Great memory.

Samantha May said... Add Reply

I love that song!

I never really had imaginary friends, but I did have nice conversations with my stuffed animals. I guess that sort of counts?

Thanks for visiting my blog! New follower here :)

Anonymous said... Add Reply

I love the idea of imaginary friends being the same as guardian angels. I bet Emily is still watching over you!

Bethe77 said... Add Reply

Loved your post. Emily is a lovely name. Your thought process great. No I didn't have an imaginary friend. But maybe I missed out. Blessings

Hannah said... Add Reply

I love this post. I also had an imaginary friend (called George) I talked and talked for hours to my imaginary friend getting very embarrassed when people would walk in on me 'talking to myself' it was all very awkward for me growing up! Funnily enough it's rather funny that after reading your post I've realised i have given my son the middle name 'George'!! x

Tui Snider @mentalmosaic said... Add Reply

I think it's cute that you kept Emily a secret. For some reason, I kept my favorite color a secret as a kid.

Even though my favorite color was purple, I'd tell everyone it was blue. It just felt personal, somehow!

Me and my two siblings all had imaginary pals, though. My bro had an imaginary goat, my sis had an evil twin and I had a monster family (who were mostly - big surprise here - bright purple!)

What a fun idea for a post. I haven't thought about my monster family in ages!

Tui
visiting from #AtoZchallenge
Twitter: @mentalmosaic
Blog: http://www.mentalmosaic.com/blog

Dawn Embers said... Add Reply

This is another great post. I never had an imaginary friend, though me and my sister did use our imaginations most of the time to make up games while we played. Great choice for day E.