I was Walter Mitty until I was 12. And then Life happened.

I'd like to think I had an extraordinary childhood.
Perhaps I did in some ways, perhaps to other people I was just another boy growing up in a small town.
A movie is coming up called The Secret Life of Walter Mitty, starring Ben Stiller.
It's about a man who has "zoning-out" episodes, in which he imagines himself as a hero in a scenario, but is actually quite different from his real life.

I don't know why, but I used to zone out as a kid. People would look at me and think what on earth is happening with that kid.
Others just laughed and said there he goes.
I even wrote some of them down in my compositions and essays for school.
The ones I remember most were my "episodes" about playing tennis in Wimbledon. I was such a tennis freak then, and I could imagine the feel and the smell of Wimbledon grass. I even had imaginary games against Stefan Edberg and Ivan Lendl.

My tennis coach got a full dose of my zoning once when I imagined myself at sea, and frantically calling out to my swimming coach,"Mr. Chan, Mr. Chan" in the middle of my tennis lesson.
My tennis coach's name was Uncle Robert.
I'm sure my childhood friends would remember.

I even swung my arms as I walked sometimes. Imagining that I was playing tennis against a great, but without a racquet!
People would just give my brother a queer look to say,"that's your brother?" as he walked alongside a boy swinging his arms.

All of this ended when I reached 12. My mother was critically ill, and I think reality hit me.
I think it's a shame, because kids are born with an open mind, and their imagination grows as much as you allow them to.
Nowadays, they're being constricted by social media, mass media and in-game media. So that kind of manouevering will restrict their way of thinking and not allow them to grow.
I hope that we will have Walter Mitty's around us, and it's not too late to cultivate imagination and innovation.
Our kids deserve their space to imagine and think differently.
Let them be.


To see the world, 
things dangerous to come to, 
to see behind walls, 
to draw closer, 
to find each other and to feel. 

That is the purpose of Life