I have a nibling who is not even two and has a model toy of the Endeavor space shuttle that he calls “my plane” when he plays with it. He loves it. And today we went to the California Science Center see the ACTUAL Endeavor space shuttle and I tell you what-
that kid lost his goddamn mind. It was the ACTUAL BEST.
Cool fact about kids: they are small and dumb and they don’t know anything.
Like, for instance, their life experience gives them no reason to know that their toys are often based on actual things that exist.
It took him a while to realise the shuttle was even there because- protip about space shuttles: they are freaking huge. So like it didn’t even really register to him as an object? It was too big, it just seemed like the ceiling? But he saw the photos on the wall and he saw the gift shop and he was looking all around like “MY PLANE! MY PLANE!” because his toy “plane” was on every single thing. Models. Shirts. Mugs. Plushies. Books. This was a whole warehouse dedicated just to his plane, and that would have been amazing enough. Except, also, the actual life-size real has-been-to-space thing was there too.
So eventually we got him to look up at the actual shuttle like, “yeah, look! There it is! It’s your plane, and it’s REALLY BIG” and when he finally took it in he literally screamed and I swear I thought for a second he was gonna die right there “IT’S BIG. MY PLANE MY PLANE MY PLANE” (looking at all the other people in the science center, pointing at a NASA space shuttle, shouting “MY PLANE!” like the actual proudest person in the world who just willed an entire spacecraft into existence).
Anyway I had a migraine for most of the day, but I’m still super glad I went out because it was totally worth it.
