NGEO YAT JOO Class 4/7
Mary Jo Putney, an American best-selling author once said, “What one loves in childhood stays in the heart forever.” Childhood is a blissful, yet short season of our lives, and this joy may, for some, come in the form of a childhood toy. For me, a favourite toy I owned when I was younger, was a stuffed worm. He was smaller than the average stuffed toy, and not an ideally adorable toy, yet he meant the world to me. He provided me with a sense of comfort on the gloomiest days, served as a lucky charm, and also taught me to be independent while growing up.
My stuffed worm, whom I named `Wormy’, had many aspects which I liked. One of them, and also the most important, was that he was capable of giving me so much comfort on the days I was troubled or down. Despite never once moving, speaking, or even implying that he was hearing speak, ‘Wormy’ always managed to comfort me. He had one line of careless stitching for mouth, which always remained in a smile that never wavered. Perhaps it was this smile that never failed to cheer me up. His smile was a goofy, silly one, and it always made me feel less alone. In a way, ‘Wormy’ was like a quiet friend; friends that never speak much, or some not at all, but one dubs them friends because they are always there for them. ‘Wormy’ comforted me on the darkest day, had the capability to turn my frown upside down, and made the joyful days even better. He was my best companion while growing up.
Apart from the sense of comfort he always managed to provide me, ‘Wormy’ also served as my lucky charm. Growing up, I firmly believed in the concept of luck. ‘Wormy’ was the greatest source of luck for me, then. He had a purple hoodie, and stitched on it was a picture of a bright, yellow moon. I always imagined that that picture of the crescent moon was ‘Wormy’s source of magic, and even power. There was no way he could have been such a great lucky charm without some magic. I brought ‘Wormy’ with me everywhere I went. I could never bear to leave him alone, even when I was on overseas trips. I believed that when he was by my side, I would be lucky enough for everything to go my way. Of course, some days it was apparent that luck was not on my side, like it rained when I wanted to play outside, but I never once doubted ‘Wormy.’ I truly believed him to be nothing less than the best source of luck. Eventually, I started to believe in myself more as I grew older. ‘Wormy’ had given me so much luck, I began to believe that I was capable of standing on my own two feet. I have ‘Wormy’ to thank for the confidence, faith, and self-worth I have today.
Besides those two aspects stated above, ‘Wormy’ helped me to learn independence too. When I was growing up, both my parents were working. They worked from morning to night, sometimes even till midnight. For the major part of my childhood, my grandmother looked after me. I would have been incredibly lonely as a child if it was not for ‘Wormy’s company. He would always sit still where I placed him and listened to me while I rambled on and on about my day. He made being apart from my parents considerably easier, and gave me someone to talk to and a shoulder to cry on when my parents were busy working or were too tired for conversations. I cultivated a habit of being independent then, though I never really relied too heavily on ‘Wormy’. He was just there for me when I needed him, and as I grew older, I learnt to rely on myself instead. I had a loving family and wonderful friends, but in the end, it was all because of ‘Wormy’ that I managed to learn to grow up independently and not expect too much from my parents.
Just like how every season ends and the new one comes around, I grew older and left my childhood behind. I eventually lost my beloved ‘Wormy’ and I remember being devastated about it. My mother used to comfort me by telling me that he had grown into a butterfly and flown away. I believed her then, and as the years passed, my stuffed worm whom I had spent so many sunny and rainy days with has faded to the back of my mind. Every once in a while I would be reminded of him, and it would always be a bittersweet reminder. Yet, after having given me so much, ‘Wormy’ gave me one last thing, the best gift of my childhood; memories. Like the quote from Winnie the Pooh goes, ‘”Sometimes, the smallest things take up the most room in your heart.” Just like my Wormy.
Writers by the River 