As a child, we usually perceive things in simple terms, yet as we grow older, we begin to see more connections and things become so complex. It is funny to me that Alice in Wonderland is a children’s story, because as children we miss the point. Reading The Annotated Alice by Lewis Carroll has helped me to make connections to my own life here at U.T. and also it has helped me see things in a different light.
It seems like in high school I wanted “nothing but Facts,” but I’ve realized this can only get you so far.[1] Using my imagination is a freeing and challenging task that allows me to have to come up with my own thoughts and ideas. Surprisingly, I have been using my imagination more now that I am in college. Perhaps this is because, like Alice, some of the new material I’m learning seems as if “it’s all in some language I don’t know”.[2] I have to look at things differently and see them from other standpoints. Just as Alice uses the mirror, I use my imagination to think of things differently.
One of the most powerful ways to see something in a different view is to try and see the view of that thing! “The sympathetic imagination is the ability of a person to penetrate the barrier which space puts between him and his object, and, by actually entering into the object, so to speak, to secure a momentary but complete identification with it.”[3] Alice startles the mouse by mentioning her cat, and he cries, “Would you like cats, if you were me?”[4] The question made me wonder if Alice really did put herself in the mouse’s view, but I assumed she didn’t because it seemed like she was only trying to get the mouse to see a different view. Maybe she would convince the mouse that her cat isn’t bad, so maybe all cats aren’t. This really stood out to me because I have realized how many different views there are here at U.T. Allowing myself to see things differently and consider other peoples opinions has opened up many new doors for me.
At the same time, I feel like so many doors are shut, and I cannot get it. 
Sometimes I get lost in the diversity, and I feel like I’m not special enough or I’m insignificant compared to the other 49,999 people here. At other times, I feel as though I’m a big stupid lump, just getting in everyone’s way. I’m sure Alice would agree that it isn’t a great feeling. Alice struggles with being too big and too small to get to the places she wants to go and I think that happens a lot in college as we miss judge ourselves. But in order to overcome this, I have to look inside myself and figure out what I want to achieve and why I’m here. I noticed the caterpillar didn’t care how Alice felt big or small, he only wanted to know who she was.
When you get to college, you have to seriously ask yourself, “Who am I and why am I here?” When I started to think about why I was here, I realized one of the deciding factors of coming to U.T. was that my father went here. Alice says to herself, “I do hope it’s my dream, and not the Red King’s! I don’t like belonging to another person’s dream.”[5] This made me think about the countless people who are at a school because their parents wanted them there. Although this was a similar situation for me, I made it my dream to be here. I made sure I was living for my dreams, and not the dreams of my parents.
Becoming your own person also means taking responsibility for yourself. In the first chapter of Through the Looking Glass, Carroll writes, “One thing was certain, that the white kitten had had nothing to do with it—it was the black kitten’s fault entirely.”[6] It is so easy to place the blame on a professor or another class than it is to admit you did not take care of your work. This quote made me realize the importance of taking responsibility and being honest with yourself because it is ultimately up to you! Black or white, a kitten is an innocent kitten. You may want to blame one thing or another, but usually neither of the two is at fault.
There are so many lessons to be learned from this book that apply to the college life as well as other children’s books such as Oh, the Places You’ll Go! by Dr. Seuss.
Although we sometimes miss the meanings when we are young, we can find them by carefully reading them again as young women and men.
[1] Charles Dickens, “Hard Times” in U.T. and Leadership, ed. Jerome Bump (Austin: Jenn’s Copy & Binding, 2008), 281
[2] Lewis Carroll. The Annotated Alice. Definitive Edition. (New York: W.W. Norton & Company, 2000), 148.
[3] Bump, Jerome. "Sympathetic Imagination." October 5, 2007.http://www.cwrl.utexas.edu/~bump/302/scheduleframeset.html (accessed October 20, 2008).
[4] Carroll, 26.
[5] Carroll, 233
[6] Carroll, 137
Images:
From http://www.cwrl.utexas.edu/~bump/302/scheduleframeset.html
and
Dr Seuss: http://www.google.com/imgres?imgurl=http://i112.photobucket.com/albums/n185/deblee13/Dr%2520Seuss/dr-seuss.jpg&imgrefurl=http://profile.myspace.com/index.cfm%3Ffuseaction%3Duser.viewprofile%26friendID%3D54000830&h=298&w=400&sz=50&tbnid=8rAy6ajYXkoJ::&tbnh=92&tbnw=124&prev=/images%3Fq%3Ddr%2Bseuss%2Boh%2Bthe%2Bplaces%2Byou%2527ll%2Bgo!&usg=__cOYDE5vLUjsw7NjoIn98w7vi6r4=&sa=X&oi=image_result&resnum=7&ct=image&cd=1
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