Costumes And Characters: Jungle Princess

The next character, or chapter, is Jamie the Jungle Princess. Whether my sister and I were rescuing imaginary injured animals and bringing them back to our tree house, going on a treasure hunt, or being the Jungle Princess and the Ocean Princess at a royal ball, a love of animals and the jungle is definitely present in the next part of my story.

This part of my story really starts when I was a baby. One of my parent’s friends used to watch me and we would watch The Crocodile Hunter together. Now, I don’t remember that, I was a baby after all, but my love of The Crocodile Hunter continues to this day. I loved how he would capture animals in trouble and nurse them back to health. I grew to love snakes, koalas, monkeys, any animal really. When I was ten I wanted to go to Australia and work at Steve Irwin’s zoo. Most kids want to be doctors or astronauts when they grow up, I wanted to be a zoo keeper. In Australia. A lot has changed since then…

From the time I was little my family started going to Florida every winter. Yes, sometimes we went to Disney World, but most of the time we were in the middle of the wildlife of Florida. I would grow to love watching the birds, gators, and manatees. My love of animals continued to grow with every time we went. And of course, living in the Adirondack Park and going camping every summer brought even more of a love for animals and wildlife.

When I was ten years old my love of the jungle transferred into my room. It was literally painted on my walls. My parents told me that they were going to paint my room and I could choose anything I wanted. But they were only painting it once, so if I changed my mind I would have to paint it myself. So, I chose something I knew I would like for a long time, the jungle. The finished product was more amazing than I could ever imagine. There is a rainbow, a waterfall, vines, flowers, and of course some fairies. There is even a painted tree on the wall that branches into a real tree branch over my bed. A canopy full of monkeys, birds, and snakes.

Not too long after that we would venture into some real jungles in Roatan Honduras. I would get to hold some real monkeys and we would eventually buy property in the jungle where the Runaway Pineapple Lodge now sits.

My love of the jungle and animals really is spread throughout my entire life and continues to grow. But it is out of this love of the jungle and animals that some of my other characters and chapters come to be, including the one I’m in now. So I suppose it is still a good story to tell. The story of the Jungle Princess.

Check back tomorrow for the next character!