I’m not like every other teenager. My favorite animal is the elephant. Yes, I said the elephant… don’t judge me! You were probably expecting me to say a cat or a dog or some other boring animal like everyone else. Well too bad. I don’t like being like everyone else. Elephants are my favorite animal.

I always think to myself, “Am I weird that I love elephants?” What’s not to like about them? They are HUGE! When they walk they leave GIANT footprints in the ground because they weigh so much. It’s like a huge imprint into the world where they have left their own personal mark. That’s pretty cool right? Or is it just cool to me? I happen to find them very interesting. Maybe you find bunnies interesting. That’s cool I guess… I mean all they do is hop around and twitch their noses and stare at you with their mini red devil eyes piercing into you… it sort of creeps me out! If you’re into that kind of stuff then go for it but that’s not really my thing. I’m more into the big, giant, beastly kind of animals.

When my good friend Joe went to Kenya with our church’s service group, I was totally jealous of him. “In two years you can go Kristen,” Joe says smiling to me. “I promise I’ll take a picture of an elephant for you”. I was happy enough that I would be able to see at least an actual picture of a real wild African elephant and not some fake one on the internet when google claims that it’s an African elephant when it’s probably not. It’s probably in some zoo in New York City or somewhere that’s not in Africa.

It has always been my dream to go to Africa and ride an elephant. Being able to have it lift me up by its trunk and put me on its back like it knows that’s what I want it to do would be so amazing… wait I don’t even think elephants can do that… in my head they can though! Sitting on its back like I am queen of Africa crushing anything in my path. Now that’s what I call a cool dream. I just want to be able to feel its warm wrinkly rough skin. To feed it peanuts. To be able to give an elephant a paint brush and watch it paint for me.

The fact that elephants can actually use their trunks as a hand fascinates me. I’ve learned that elephants share the same love as I do. Painting. They’re able to move the end of their trunks so they can hold the paint brush like a hand could. I love painting. It’s one of my favorite things to do. Yes, sure monkeys can paint too but they have actual hands. It doesn’t count in my book. An actual elephant painting with no hands… now that’s amazing to me.

Don’t you hate it when your swimming and you get water up your nose, feeling that stinging pain, your eyeballs crying? I know I do! Well get this, elephants can suck water up their nose with no problem. No stinging pain or crying eyeballs. They suck up water and spray their backs to clean themselves, keep them cool, and clean their babies. If humans had trunks and could do that it would be pretty bizarre. Having my mom suck up water then washing me with her nose water… EWW GROSS! Let’s leave that to the elephants. Also, when elephants go into deep water to swim they use their trunks to breath. It just sticks out of the water and they can breathe while swimming! Easy as that. If I could do that I bet I’d be a whole lot better at swimming because I wouldn’t have to worry about breathing.

Why do I love elephants? They are huge and can make footprints in the ground. I’ve been dreaming to go to Africa just to see and touch an elephant. Elephants can paint and use their trunk as a hand. They can suck water up their noses without it hurting and can swim and breath at the same time. All I can say is I am crazy about elephants. So what? That’s who I am! Maybe you’re crazy about something to. I’m just not scared to admit it.