One time, at band camp

Brace yourself we're headed down memory lane.

Okay, so it wasn't band camp. It was student council camp. The summer before my sophomore year of High School. We were broken into small groups for some sort of team building or self discovery or problem solving exercise. Everyone in the circle was supposed to name something they would "invent".

I remember the pretty blonds echoing each other with the desire to "invent" a children's hospital that would "cure" all childhood diseases. One after another, they built on their idea until the hospital not only cured and prevented each and every illness, but also promised an idyllic future full of rainbows, happiness and happily-ever-afters.

When it was my turn. I said that I'd "invent" a time machine.

This was met with great confusion and objection. "No fair!" The chorus of pretty blonds exclaimed. "Your invention has to be real! A time machine isn't real!" Unlike, say - a magic hospital that heals.

Afterward, I remember this quiet, bookish guy came up to me and said he liked what I had suggested. I keep thinking about that guy. Right now, he's probably polishing his Nobel Peace Prize. Or, I'm forgetting that his name tag read William Gates.