Curious About Everything

Jackson did not feel good so he stayed home from school today. He did not like to be sick. It was no fun at all.

He got out of his bed and walked into his brother’s bedroom. Carter loved cars. He had them all over his room. One sat on his desk in many pieces. Carter loved putting model cars together. Jackson touched one of the black tires. He wished Carter was home. Carter liked to talk about the model cars as he was putting them together.

Jackson left Carter’s room and walked down the hall to the room his twin sisters shared. Ella liked wearing pretty clothes and Madison liked riding her horse. Ella’s side of the room was nice and neat. Madison’s side was a mess. Ella decorated the wall behind her bed with pictures of girls in fancy clothes. A big poster of a horse was on the wall behind Madison’s bed. Jackson turned and walked back out of the room, tripping over Madison’s cowboy boots as he did. He didn’t fall down, but it was close.

He walked back down the hall and into his little sister’s room. Sophie was the youngest kid in the family. She was five-years-old and Jackson was six. She loved to dance and you could sure tell that from looking at her room. Her ballet shoes and the little black outfit she always wore to dance were on her dresser. A big poster of a ballerina was over the dresser. She was wearing a funny pink outfit with a skirt that stuck out. Sophie told him what the dress was called, but he couldn’t remember right now. 

As he stood there, trying to remember what it was called, he realized all of this brothers and sisters rooms looked like the things they loved. Carson had cars in his room, Ella fashion, Madison horses, and Sophie ballet. Jackson wondered what his room said about him. He walked back down the hall and stood in the doorway of his room. 

His bed was a mess. But he just got out of it, so that was normal. There was a racetrack on his floor, a barn he made out of toy logs, a plastic hat that was part of a magic trick set he got for his birthday, and a couple of plastic dinosaurs lying on their sides. Some clean clothes were stacked on his dresser. His walls were bare. No posters of any kind. He used to have a funny poster of a dog wearing a hat but it fell down a long time ago. He wondered where it went. 

“Are you feeling better?” his mom asked as she walked into the room.

Jackson shrugged. “Maybe a little. Hey Mom, why doesn’t my room look like everyone else’s?”

“What do you mean?”

“Well, you can tell what they like just by looking into their room. Carter loves cars, Ella loves clothes, Madison loves horses, and Sophie loves dancing. But when you look into my room, it’s just a mess. It looks like I don’t like anything.”

Mom walked over to Jackson’s dresser and added the pile of folded clothes to the clean clothes that were already there. 

“That’s not true.”

“Well, then what do I like?”

“A person doesn’t have to like just one thing. Some people do, but that doesn’t mean that everyone does. Some people, like you, are just curious. They want to know about everything and do everything. Looking around your room tells me that you like to race cars, build things, do magic, and you’re even interested in dinosaurs. 

“But why don’t I really love just one thing, like Carter loves cars?”

“Because you aren’t Carter. You are Jackson. And Jackson is curious. You want to know everything. And that’s a wonderful thing!”

“Really?”

“Absolutely!”

“I guess I really am curious. I do want to know about everything.”

“I love that about you! Your Dad is like that too.”

Jackson smiled. “Yes! He is like that, isn’t he.”

Mom nodded. “Yes. Just like you. Now, since I know you are curious, and want to know everything, let’s work on something new.”

“What?” Jackson asked.

“Putting your clothes away! Won’t that be fun?”

Jackson laughed. “No, Mom. I don’t think it will be. But let’s do it anyway.”