Stuffed Animals: More Than Just Fluff And Fur

Call me childish but I still sleep with a teddy bear; after I moved I didn't sleep with one, but when I came back from visiting the first time, I did.

When I visited two years ago my close friend got me a stuffed panda bear, she and I have a huge obsession with pandas, so she gave a stuffed one to me, kinda like a "Welcome Back" gift.

His name is Maxwell, my brother named him. I sleep with this little guy every night since I got him, he's the biggest thing I have of my friends in Indy left. He dried my tears when I was homesick, and he still smells like my old youth group did. Sometimes when I'm homesick I'll sniff him, and I'll remember the moment I walked in there, the moment I was reunited with my friends, the moment my friend gave him to me out of the colorful striped bag. I remember the moment my best friend hugged my every fifteen seconds, I remember home.

Some kids believe that their stuffed animals are real, that they can talk, smell and think...

But maybe the reason isn't because they're childish, or because of  Toy Story.

But maybe it's because stuffed animals to us, kids, are so much more than just stuffing and fake fur.
They're our best friends, our protectors, our pillow. We brought them everywhere, we hugged them whenever we wanted to, we took them on walks. Admit it, we all did. ;)

Saying that this panda isn't anything more than just stuffing shoots something sharp in my heart, it's hard to explain... This guy is the biggest thing I have from home, sure I have a few rocks and letters, but those get lost easily, and they can't really dry your tears, and they don't smell of home...

This is just like the "Books are just 26 letters put in different order" and that is true, but books are so much more than just 26 letters, books are an adventure, books are another life lived with the flip of a page.

Whether it's going to Mordor, in Hogwarts, or going into a closet that leads to Narnia. (True book lovers will get this)

Books are so much more than just letters, they're adventures in your hand.
And stuffed animals are more than just stuffing, they're our best friends, they make the best huggers, and comfort us when we're sad. Maxwell has been through most of it, whether it was tears, sickness, couldn't sleep...He was there. Stuffed animals are more than just stuffing. They protected us from monsters under the bed and in the closet, they chased away the night mares..

They're more than just stuffing to some people.

They are so much more.

~Nana