When I was younger my dad would travel overseas a lot for his job, as a result I would only get to see him for two weeks at a time. I remember I would countdown the days to his next arrival. Marking each day on the calendar. The night before he came my mom and I would decorate the house with flowers that we would pick from our garden so the house would be filled with the sweet scents of roses and jasmine; we would spend all day cooking his favorite meals and surprise him with his favorite dessert. The next morning the house would be filled with excitement as we got ready to pick my dad up from the airport; the car ride their I would be jumping out of my seat from excitement.The moment I saw him walk through the crowd I wouldn’t be able to control myself and would launch myself at him.

 

From each of these trips my dad would always bring me a small present that, as a kid, I would always look forward to. For one of these trips my dad he brought my back a Barney the Purple Dinosaur plush toy. Now as a kid I has been absolutely obsessed with the Barney show; I remember I would sit on the floor of our t.v room with my breakfast sat right in front of me and watch Barney.

 

So as you can imagine I had been very excited when my dad had pulled out this deep purple, medium sized, plushy of Barney the Dinosaur. For the next few years of my life this plushy never left my side. I would take him everywhere with him from the grocery store to long road trips. With my child like imagination I would imagine that the two of us would go on wild adventure where we would go lion hunting in the dry grasslands of Africa or travel to the deepest depths of the Rain forest to find a lost treasure.

 

Barney was my most prized possession from my childhood.I remember that he brought me a lot of comfort as a kid because I was a very nervous kid when I was little, and I hated being apart from my parents so Barney gave a connection to home; I felt less scared when he was around.

 

Since he was so special to me it will not come to you as a surprise that Barney went to the first day of school with me. He got stuffed into my backpack, and it this point he wasn’t looking to great from years of wear and tear. His purple colour was now worn out from the constant washes he went through, and his feet had started to fray from the ends. I remember sitting in the middle of the school courtyard on a small wooden bench feeling so alone and pulling him out of my backpack. This girl approached me when she saw me holding him, and we talked about our love for the Barney show and all the characters that appeared in it. This is my favorite memory of him from my childhood because I feel like if it wasn’t for him being their I wouldn’t  have had the courage to approach any of the other kids on my own. Barney gave me something really special that day; he provided me with the courage to step out of my comfort zone and make a friend and I don’t think I could ever forget that.

 

I was really struggling to find something to write about for my anecdote and I finally got the inspiration to write this after watching the new Christoper Robin movie. This Barney toy was really special to me as a kid and I can’t really imagine my childhood without him. I felt a great sense of nostalgia talking about him again. Just thinking back to all the memories brings on this strong sense of bitter-sweetness where the past is filled with such joy, and I get this feeling of wanting to go back and not wanting to face an uncertain future. I will always remember my time with him as precious and full of adventure and wonder.

 

via GIPHY