I Want to Be Like Paddington

Bedtime stories weren’t really a big thing in my family. However when we were in elementary school my brother and I would go to Ohio to visit our grandma for the summer. I have many fond memories of these summers at Grandma’s house, going to Cedar Point, fishing in Lake Erie, and A bear Called Paddington.

Im not sure why, but my grandma was really into British TV shows and we would watch them with her at night, maybe this is why she had A Bear Called Paddington on cassette tape. Regardless the reason, my brother and I would listen to that tape every night as we fell asleep, which is how I was brainwashed by Paddington.

To give a brief overview, Paddington Bear is a bear from darkest Peru. He is friendly and polite yet always seems to get himself into trouble or cause problems for the humans he lives with. However, no matter how bad things got, everything ends up working out and Paddington ends up the hero. Everyone in the house loves Paddington despite his blunders.

I think I have spent the last 20 years subconsciously trying to be Paddington.

I try to be nice and polite to people, yet I seem to do a lot of dumb things. These missteps range from silly little mistakes, all the way up to being arrested. I never really tried to cause problems, or upset people, it just seems to happen. For a long time I thought it was because I wasn’t smart enough or wasn’t good enough.

Maybe I was channeling my inner Paddington.

My aloof attitude and my propensity to daydream were the root of my problems, nothing was done out of anger or revenge. This is part of the redeeming quality of Paddington, his heart was always in the right place.

There is some good that came from all of this, my unwavering belief that everything will work out and everything will be fine.

Paddington showed me there is no need to worry.

Nowadays people seem to look for the bad, or find things to get upset about. To be fair there are plenty of problems in the world, but most people spend too much time worrying and complaining about things that don’t really matter. Much like the humans in the book who were constantly trying to keep track of Paddington and getting mad at him for every little thing.

Stories are very important for children because it gives them a chance to learn and experience new things and ideas and begin to use their imagination. Many ideas and philosophies can be taught to children through stories that make them more fun and easier to learn.

Hearing a person or tape read a story to them allows the child to use their imagination to enact the stories in their minds. The ability to think and create not only makes us human, it can be applied to all areas of life and is something all kids should encouraged to do. As we get older we conform more and more to fit in with others. This is why it’s so important for kids to think and be creative at a young age, before the world has a chance to influence them.

I wish I could be like Paddington, going through life without a care in the world and always coming out of a tough situation in a calm, easy manner. This teaches kids it is ok to make mistakes as long as we make it right in the end. Being ourselves and doing what we love is important, but we still need to be mindful of others. It shows Paddington going through life with less fear and stress, while taking accountability for his mistakes. Maybe we should all be more like Paddington.