Juan knew that Santa Claus was too good to be true.
“Well, its not an easy story to tell,” Juan said with a smirk and a twinkle in his eye “This story involves love, Santa Claus, a little boy’s dreams and betrayal. I’m just warning you ahead of time so if you feel like you want to cry, just step outside for a few minutes.” I felt the need to convince him that I wouldn’t cry knowing full well that he was clearly joking. And with a simple nod of acknowledgment he started his story.
Juan knew who delivered all these presents during Christmas time.
It was a chilly December day, a day like any other except for one thing. Today was a very special day, a day where thousands upon thousands of children across the globe would be waking up and discovering that someone had left them presents under the Christmas tree for them. Yep, that’s right, today was Christmas. Juan immediately got out of bed and, without even putting his blue slippers one, he scurried to the Christmas tree wondering what presents awaited him. The presents did not disappoint. Among all the presents that he received the one that stands out in his mind the most was a Spiderman riding a motorcycle. “At that time I was around eight years old and I was completely obsessed with anything related to Spiderman. I had Spiderman bed sheets, Spiderman utensils and lots of Spiderman toys. I even had Spiderman themed underpants!” he said as he reminisced, laughing softly to himself.
This is what the world wanted Juan to believe, but h was on to them.
Juan quickly went outside to show his neighbors, two boys of his age who were his very close friends, the toys that he received. He rang on their doorbell and played with his Spiderman toy as he waited for them to open the door. Once they finally opened the door they quickly went over to his side and started talking in very hushed voices. As it turns out the neighbors had discovered the secret identity of Santa Claus. Juan, not wanting to miss out on such a golden opportunity, convinced them to tell him. “Santa Claus is my dad” they whispered. Juan stood there for a second processing this new piece of information. However, he didn’t just process the information, he went beyond that and started connecting the dots. With a gasp Juan realized that Santa Claus wasn’t just his neighbors dad but rather it was the parents of every single kid including his own. With that discovery his whole world started to shatter as images of Santa Claus started being replaced by images of hos own parents. “Of course I never told them that I knew. I only told them when I was much older so to them I was still an innocent little kid that believed in Santa Claus. However, I knew the truth and I finally saw how cruel the world was.”
A UCI Student and his Blog 