Once there was a girl...

... who loved animals very much. She wanted to be a vet. She would spend her recesses trying to catch tadpoles in drains, and even tried to bring some to her father in a Vitagen bottle as a get well soon gift when he was in hospital (her mother was aghast, and made her release the tadpoles, amidst alot of tears). She poured over books by James Herriot. She brought stray cats home, much to her mother's horror. Her parents told her gently that you had to go overseas to study if you wanted to be a vet, so she contented herself with taking her of her stuffed animals instead.

She had a pet lamb, whom she named Lammy, and he was like Mary's little lamb: he followed her wherever she went.

As she grew older, those dreams about being a vet slowly faded away. These were replaced by dreams of being an interior designer. The dreams started when she first chanced upon an Ikea catalogue in her grandparent's house. She started drawing out possible layouts of her rooms, and proposing all sorts of room re-dos. Her parents acceded to some of her requests, and ignored some others. She even took part in an Ikea teenage room design competition, and was delighted that she got to eat in the staff area, and have Swedish meatballs for lunch everyday. She hung on to those dreams and those Ikea catalogues... until she was again reminded that there was no local uni degree on interior design.

She went on to study... and eventually became a teacher. There, she scratched her design itch designing covers of her students' notes. Her love for animals meant she enjoyed teaching Biology.

Now many years later... she is still a teacher, but to three little boys who call her Mama. She is happy because she gets to design the rooms in her own home. She still gets looks of horror, this time from her hubby, when she proposes crazy DIY projects. And Lammy? He now has new owners, who don't treat him as well. They don't want to be vets, but one is a self-proclaimed paleontologist, another likes being a doctor and pretending to poke people with syringes, and the third just likes chewing on Lamy.

Those Ikea catalogues got thrown out after almost 20 years (she kept every single catalogue from 1992 to 2010!)... but those dreams and memories tied up in Lammy? Those still stay... but are slowly being replaced by the hopes and dreams of three little boys.

"If you carry your childhood with you, you never become older." 

- Tom Stoppard 

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This post is part of a blog train hosted by Agatha from Green Issues by Agy on "I Didn't Throw It Away". Tomorrow, hop over to Dominique's Desk. Dominique, who is a supermum of three, will be sharing about the oldest item she has at home: her piano.

About this blog train: We have become such a throw-away society, but there are some things in our households that we still keep. Why is that so? Perhaps this blog train can unlock the reasons behind it! Follow the daily posts on this blog train and read about the stories behind the things we have kept for many years and why we didn't throw them away.