Elephants Never Forget

Growing up I never had an attachment to anything. My sister was obsessed with this doll and my brother to some pacifier. My attachment however grew as I got older to a stuffed elephant named Peanut that I received when I was five years old. This blog may make me seem childish, but I think it is important to realize the significance of objects in your life.
I love elephants. I have four in my room, Peanut, Nutty, Cashew and Almond (cleaver I know), and on my senior trip to the zoo in St. Louis, I refused to leave until I saw the elephants despite the monsoon going on, and I was devastated when visiting the Des Moines zoo to find that they didn't have elephants at all. I sleep with Peanut every night. I find baby elephants adorable. But my obsession isn't just with their adorableness, but more of what the represent.
Elephants are a symbol of good luck in many cultures, they are some of the few animals that create "families" or herds and stick with them, and they are so emotionally invested in these families that many die from a broken heart. Well actually they die from starvation and dehydration. Typically after a member of the family dies, especially the babies, the mother, or another member, stays behind with the carcass to make sure that nothing devours it. Due to this devotion many die watching over the already deceased.
Elephants are loyal, lucky and loving. They obtain characteristics that as humans we should all strive to acquire. Plus their huge ears are just so darn precious. I know that my gang of elephants aren't real, I'm not some crazy childhood obsessed lady, but there are few things we carry through out life that can hold onto memories like that of a stuff animal or blanket. Peanut has been with me since my first sleepover to the first time I left the country; he was there on my first day on first grade, and my first day of college. I've used him to wipe my tears, I may have thrown him a few times out of anger, and he has taken stupid pictures with me and my roommate on photobooth. We all have something in our lives that isn't just what it appears to be, it holds value, it holds memories, it was something that reminds you of all the good days from passing a test to getting into college, and all the bad days of fights, break ups or failures. In a world where things change quickly, and nothing in life is permenant,  isn't it nice to have one thing that was there through it all?

"I said what I meant and I meant what I said, an elephants faithful one-hundred percent."

--Horton, Dr. Seuss