When you abandon something you leave it behind. Something that has been abandoned is something that has been left behind by choice, whether or not someone meant to, or wanted to leave it behind isn’t the question. Something that has been over-used or has become out-dated becomes abandon. Children are abandon when parents can’t handle the responsibilities that a child brings. Clickers are lost under couches and new ones are bought. House’s are vacated and become so run down they aren’t able to house any families. They wait their time to become demolished and rebuilt as they sit and decay.
The thing that interests me the most is abandoning your childhood. Loosing your innocence or growing up against your will. Loosing your virginity can a sign of abandoning your innocence. Or also if you are religious abandoning your belief that premarital sex is forbidden. Once you have become abandon you sit in a place of emptiness.
A ball in the woods goes forgotten as it sits in mud waiting to be thrown away. An old pair of shoes goes abandoned the day you bring back a new pair, and they get lost in a dumpster. The only ray of hope for those things abandoned is that one day someone’s trash is another mans treasure. Those old shoes take on a different job and are used when you are cutting the lawn or working in the yard. Even though the act of abandonment is the act of leaving something, someone, or somewhere behind, nothing is ever lost because you always move onto something new. And this is where transitions take over abandonment.
The pictures I found online were of empty swing sets and I immediately thought they were great metaphors for abandoning your childhood or innocence. Leaving is different then abandoning because you are giving up hope and never coming back. Leaving is more intentional then abounding. Abounding is something you turn to when you have no other options or answers. When I found the pictures I knew immediately that someone could see emptiness in them. The swing in the foreground is the center of attention. I then came up with an idea for the 2-3 minute video project as to using a swing set to give a visual image of abandoning your childhood. My story developed as a young child getting out of a car and running to a playground. Using camera work and special filming and effects the boy will get into the top of a slide, slide down, and come out an older version. He will then run to the swings and start swinging. A shot under the swing will have the boy in frame pumping and reaching a height outside of the shot.After a few swings of disappearing out of frame he will jump off and an even older version will land. I brought this up in class, and someone added input that this could also be a transition of life. I enjoyed that my story had developed from one subject to another and abandoning your childhood comes over very dark and negative. Transitioning from a child to an adult is a warmer way to describe loosing your innocence. And this brings forth an important question… can you actually loose your innocence? Or rather transfer from a innocent child to an adult.
