The Ivan Story

It was the same scene I saw every morning before going to my 2008 summer job: Grandma and four-year-old Ivan (the boy she babysat) in my living room watching Dora the Explora. But one week that summer, I took off from work and spent my days with Grandma and Ivan. This story is about that one particular week.

Day 1.

There I was watching Dora the Explora with Ivan. My Grandma had gone off to do her chores around the house, so I was solely responsible for watching over him. Unfortunately (or so it seemed at the time), our watching of Dora the Explora was interrupted by the sound of my phone ringing in my room on the second floor of the house. So, I started walking towards the stairs when I realized I couldn’t leave Ivan by himself in the living room. The logical thing to do: I brought him to “the upstairs” (as Ivan calls the second floor of my home).

After finishing my phone conversation, I noticed Ivan – very quiet, slowly completing a 360 degree visual scan of my room. Then he started touching some stuff in my room (without my permission – I didn’t mind, though); all the while with a look of genuine awe on his face.

Day 2.

We weren’t even 2 minutes into Dora the Explora, when Ivan asked me if he could play in “the upstairs.” And it hit me: Ivan didn’t even know that “the upstairs” existed before yesterday. And here he was, asking to play in that new place above the first floor ceiling. His mind and world were forever expanded to the dimensions of the second floor!

Now watching Dora the Explora in my room, he started exploring the rest of “the upstairs.” And I almost expected what happened next: He came across a curtain, which he soon discovered (after pulling it aside) leads to my attic – the third floor of my house.

Day 3.

I didn’t even have the chance to turn the television on before Ivan grabbed my hand and asked me to take him to “the up-upstairs” (aka: my attic).

And it hit me even harder: Wow. Just yesterday, Ivan didn’t know my attic existed; and now, he wants to play in that new place above the second floor ceiling!



I realized at that exact moment that Ivan would never be satisfied again just playing in my living room – the one place in my house he spent month after month prior to my one week off during that summer of 2008, living. Simply because he knew there was more. And as you would probably guess: The same pattern continued on Day 4 and Day 5 of my one week off from work. That summer, Ivan discovered not only the second floor and attic of my house, but went on to explore my basement, my backyard, and frontyard – expanding his world to include new places, images, objects, sounds, thoughts, experiences, and even emotions. He was seeing the rest of my house for the first time in his four-year life, full of pure excitement from simply discovering something new.

During my summer of 2008, I met not only a new friend, but a teacher, in little Ivan. He taught me that there’s so much more to this world, to this life, that remains at this very moment, undiscovered… unexplored. He inspired me to constantly stretch the limits of my known universe and in the process, learn, grow, and truly live.

To little kids, every day is an extraordinary opportunity to step into the shoes of “Dora the Explora”; they’re always discovering something new. We can, and should, still be the same way. Life never has to be unexciting. Life never is unexciting. And if it seems as though, then it simply means that we’re stuck in some living room, thinking that that’s all there is. But you’d be wrong! Be curious again! Walk around a little and you’ll surely find stairs leading to some “upstairs” (whatever that will mean to you) that you never previously knew existed!

As adults, we’ve all felt bored with work, school, and relationships. All “bored” really means is that we’ve stopped growing. If you’re bored with work, then set a goal to become the best at what you do! It’ll give you reason to want to get up in the morning and make a flawless masterpiece of your work day. Same thing with school: strive to really learn something in class. You’ll only be better off in doing so. And with relationships: each and every one of us is an infinite being. Therefore, we can never really run out of new things to learn about someone else (let alone yourself)! Just ask more interesting questions about your partner! And even if you do run out of things to learn about another person (highly unlikely, though), there’s always new foods, films, music, cities, woods, jungles, vacations, lakes, books, mountains, cars, blogs, pictures, beaches, clothes, churches, museums… (the list literally goes on forever) to experience… together.

Life is way too short to not live in the biggest possible world you could possibly live in. Redefine your idea of “possible” right now! Let this “Ivan Story” be that fortunate phone call from “the upstairs” that lets you know that there’s more! And make a commitment to start being a little more like Ivan and get out of that living room! Now! Start exploring new “second floors” in your life every single chance you’re blessed with!

The world, the universe, is unbelievably HUGE.

And life… it’s our ONE (exciting!) CHANCE to explore as much of it as we can.

A True JOCC Story by Julian Pormentilla.