"The Biggest, Most Beautiful Balcony in the World" Reflections

     The book we transitioned to this week was, "Maps to Anywhere." A variety of creative essays are combined into this book. Some are from the same author, while other essays are from different writers. Each individual essay has it's own unique message. Some of the messages are very easy to find and others need a little time for analyzing before seeing the message. The essay, "The Biggest, Most Beautiful Balcony in the World" is one of those stories you have to read over and over again to grasp the main point or message.

     The essay starts off by having the narrator share a memory with his niece when she was little. They would play a game where he would ask her a question like, "What's the funniest thing in the world?" Although the narrator never remembers what his niece's answers were, he specifically remembered her facial expressions as she searches for an answer in her mind. The little girl would take a minute or two and search through each horizon in her brain to formulate the perfect answer. The way how the narrator describes her ways of thinking was marvelous. Each sentence is attention grabbing. It scoops you up and takes you on a journey to see what it would be like to be inside a little girl's head. That's the thing with little kids, they can search big and wide for a simple answer, but yet they give you the most unique answer that no adult could never think of. Which does make me wonder why the narrator never remembered his niece's answers, because if I was him, I certainly would.

     The next part of the essay indicates that the narrator's niece has grown up. It is clear that she is not the same little girl anymore and that she is more conserved about her thoughts. She attains the "American Dream" idea of being married and having a big house. I think that the narrator is a little sad about this. He loved playing that silly game with her and seeing her explore her imagination. Now the imagination that she has is no longer big and wild. This is where I can see a possible message. When we are little, nothing stops our imagination. We used to think about so many things and when we are going into adolescence and then adulthood, we lose that sense of imagination. I think the narrator feels like he still has that part of his imagination and he wished others still had it too, like his niece. As he looks at the saddest balcony in the world, everything that was in the balcony made it feel sad. I think he is reflecting on people, instead of the balcony. We are taught in order to survive, we must get a job and follow these rules. When people do that, some aren't necessarily happy or do not have anything exciting in their life. The narrator doesn't want to be a part of that. He wants an exciting life that is full of fun and imagination, or in his words, "A more ornate balcony to gaze up at." We only have one life and it is a shame on how much we get rid of our imagination, or beauty, in order to conform into the ideas of someone else that thinks that way is survival.

      Although this may not be the exact message the author is trying to show, the message I saw made me really like this story. When I first read it, I was a little confused on what the key point was. Then, when I thought and read more, I came to the message that I felt from the story. This makes the essay truly inspiring. It puts a perspective that it's so easy to forget how much excitement and imagination we had as a child. Also its the fact that we are to give up so much of that, "In order to survive." There is so much good we can do with the same imagination as we had when we were little. Some of the youngest kids have the brightest ideas that can make the world a better place. This essay has a really unique message and I think it is one of my favorites so far into this book. I look forward into reading more essays that can give me a inspiring message, like this one.