Imagination

One of the (many) things that the boyfriend and I disagree over in a big way is films. The boyfriend LOVES a horror, be it Hostel, Psycho, The Exorcist, Don't Look Now, Saw, the list goes on. And I absolutely HATE them. And although it has taken me nearly 24years to work out why, I think I have finally figured it out.

When my sister and I were little my mother insisted on making us a lot of toys. As she (rightfully) pointed out, if money was spent on them, we would only get bored as quickly as we would with ones that were hand-me-downs or handmade. Now, despite the truth in this, it was a source of severe embarassment to have a cooker, not made of plastic, but made from an old box, with felt tip rings drawn on. And yet, my sister and I were only ever embarassed of it in front of other people - with each other it worked as well as a plastic one, wooden one, even a real one.

Looking back on this, and the fact that Lucy and I used to drive my father mad with our imaginary games (the "Anna Game" being one - I couldn't even tell you what was involved, but we could play that game for days and days without a single prop) I have realised that the reason that Lucy and I were never really fussed by the real toy (what an oxymoron) or the homemade one was because really the toy was no more than an aide for our never exhausted imaginations.

And it is for that same reason that I cannot watch horror films, or even read horror books (Stephen King's "IT" scared me so much my long-suffering step-mother made me throw it in the wheelie bin outside) - I cannot help but put myself directly into the situation, however unrealistic. Even watching really dated, and unrealistic to the point of funny horror films, and after a few moments, I am terrified rigid (after watching Jaws aged 15 I was so terrified that I kept thinking my lamp was a shark). And the terror doesn't end there - many the night has my dad, and later on the boyfriend had to sit up with me, be woken up by me, had to talk me through how it is not, could not be real.

The upside to having an extremely overactive imagination is that I can be left unattended, without any props, distractions, or conversation for hours, and still not be bored.