Imagine ... and one day it will be real

Imagine a place where anything is possible. Sound familiar? This is a cliche exactly because it has been imagined so excessively.

It has been thought up in so many different forms to influence the masses in ways never unimaginable.

This place exists in fantasy. It thrives on creativity and shrivels up in reality until it is brought back to life again in a different form by an imagineer.

However, it doesn't exist merely on a mental platform. No, it has been transported to unearthly realms. Video games, films, books - everywhere fantastical imprints can be stamped and more.

Imagination is bound neither to one's physical skull nor to any laws of physics. Its potential is as endless as the piece of string one wishes to unravel.

Fantasy has influenced films, games and novels so much that it even requires its own genre. It is a recognised style of recording, which provides a free and safe landscape to do as one pleases.

Ever wanted to fight 12 rounds with the world champion boxer and not be hit once? Has the thought of racing Formula 1 supercars at age 12 ever been laughed out of your mind?

Gaming provides a safe setting to live life dangerously. Films provide a way of presenting ideas that words would be insufficient to convey.

Books achieve the same result but through different methods. Unillustrated words give vague descriptions to depict the author's fantastical ideas, but with a more interactive relationship with the reader where they too can fantasise by creating a visual image of what they read.

Thus, with the art of pre-meditated co-construction, a fantasy is shared with a hint of idiosyncratic perceptions.

But what of all the influences on society's thinking - aren't people going crazy and massacring others? Well, yes, there have been a few extreme cases. But if someone played a video game for five days straight then I think they were already crazy.

Generally, fantasy has a positive effect on the mind. It allows us to see the implausible as possible. Moreover, when the fantastical becomes rational, people begin to achieve great things.

3D TV, for example, was but a mere figment of Ray Bradbury's imagination. But as the thought was conceived and the idea put forward, more people started to think it possible and, before you know it, it's reality.

It was fantasy that advanced humanity and fantasy that makes it impossible to see the future in the instant. That is, once we are desensitised to once fantastical thoughts, the next thought is how it can be improved. We are forever evolving - we just keep thinking up bigger boots to fill.

I am never bored because, no matter where I am, if there's a dull moment then I'm immediately sky-diving or driving a race car or surviving a zombie apocalypse. I escape the lassitude in my mind, which can take me far, far away from the monotonous setting to which my earthly body is confined. With fantasy, the shackles of boredom can be broken and our imaginative potential unlocked.

The creative outlet allows us to express our desires in whichever way we choose.

Fantasy is irrelevant without reality and reality is what it is today without fantasy. It allows us to express, experience and create reality without being physically involved. Moreover, it allows us to continue to advance in many if not all aspects of society. It frees us from monotonous moments and presents a private world as a hideaway.

However, imitating or interacting with previously seen and experienced fantasy is easy. It's witnessing pure fantasy that's difficult - finding true, genuine inspiration that is tricky.

Tom Gray, Year 13, Sacred Heart College, Auckland