A Titanic Obsession

Who would have thought the mere watching of the movie The Titanic would cause such thought in an 8 year old boy? Yes, Britt has been absolutely obsessed with it for the past month or so, ever since we sat down and watched the show one Sunday afternoon. Of course, being the pirate that he is, none of us should be surprised. I mean, after all, the Titanic was a ship. The greatest ship to ever set sail! And, tragically, to ever fail...
Since seeing the movie, Britt has talked about it nonstop. Brailey and I have learned more about the Titanic than we ever thought it possible to know. He has checked out every single library book the school has about the Titanic, and he studies the pictures, reads about it and then asks me questions I usually don't know the answers to and shares with us things he has learned about it - all this on our journeys to and from school.
He has decided to become a history teacher when he grows up, he told us. When he shared this with me, I though, "How wonderful! He'll make a great history teacher." He has always had a great love of history, which I know is rare for children to have. Most people don't care about history until they are out of college - a wise high school history teacher told me this, and he said it is because the world is all about "us" when we are young, and we can't comprehend nor care about the past. But once we hit a certain age, we realize we came from somewhere, and history becomes interesting to us. Makes sense to me! So anyway, I was feeling quite proud of Britt and his decision to be a history teacher. However, once he elaborated, I understood that it is merely part of his obsession - he wants to be a history teacher so he can teach people about the Titanic. "I want to be a history teacher so I can teach people about the Titanic," he said. "And then, I'm going to teach them about the Concordia. And then, I'm going to tell them to write a story about the Titanic." He already has his lesson plans made!
One day he came home from school with a story he had written in his free time. It was in English, so I could actually understand it, and I'm going to save it forever... Here is what he wrote:
Hi I'm Britt. I'm going to tell you about the Titanic. You have probably seen the movie Titanic with Jack and Rose but that movie's not real at all. Well, kind of. The Titanic was going from England to America when they had to go through the Artic Sea. When the person that owned it wanted it to go way way faster, that's when they crashed in the iceberg.
That was all he had time to write, but me, being his mother, found it absolutely adorable! Of course, he had his words spelled a little differently, as children do, which makes it even more endearing to me.
Just a couple of weeks ago, a documentary came on the History channel about the Titanic. Britt was fascinated! He couldn't take his eyes off the show, it was so interesting to him. And now, wouldn't you know, The Titanic movie is coming back to theaters in 3D! Yes, of course we're going. We must! Even Brailey and Brady feel we have to take him to see it on the big screen and to experience the tragedy in a form larger than life. The story of the Titanic is truly mind boggling, and I think the fact that most of what is in the movie is real is what intrigues Britt and fuels his obsession. Actually, I've been a bit obsessed with the Titanic, myself. I can barely wrap my mind around it - no wonder it is thought-provoking for Britt. History... It's amazing!