How Roger R. Roach Became a World Newscaster and Traveler

Well first of all. I am not just any roach but a one of a kind.... An Enlightened Roach.

It started with my mum who was a Giant Burrowing Cockroach or Rhinoceros Cockroach. She told me stories about how life was before she came to America. She and her family lived in Australia. The professor told her she was one of the biggest roaches in the world. She was pretty big at 3 inches plus. She missed her home. In Australia, she enjoyed life in the Australian bush and lived in a burrow not in a house as many other roaches. She dug her own burrow in the sandy soil and life was peaceful. She was not like so many roaches you are familiar with who are pests and cause humans trouble. Mum and my kind are good roaches who live out in the bush, eat dead gum leaves{Eucalyptus) and help the eco system by recycling the leaves. We are really clean and don't smell. We don't have wings or fly. We just mind our own business.

Life was sure different after being brought over to America by the professor. This is how mum came to live in America and why I am such a different kind of roach.

Well, there was a famous professor, Professor Ivan, who was visiting Australia. Dr. Ivan studied insects and such all over the world. He was a scientist . He thought mum was so interesting that he brought her back to America on the ship with him. He kept her in a box in his lab all decked out with sand and leaves to eat. Sometimes he let her out when he was working. He became rather fond of her. One day he left her out and forgot to put her back in. She began wandering in his library. There was not much to eat there so she spent days wandering around in his lab with all its shelves of books.

The professor had acres of books of every kind with neat pictures. He even had pictures of where she had come from....Australia. There were pictures of others that looked a little like her but much smaller. He even had specimens of other insects too. She never knew that all that existed.

So to pass the time and look for something to eat, she began to look at the professors books, the different pictures of all the places in the world. There were lots of books and lots of pictures to see. Later on she observed and listened to the professor as he talked in his office and did his research. She was fascinated. She kept hidden though, she liked her freedom. I guess Mum was 'special' too because she realized there was a world beyond her own world. She realized how big the world was even though she was just a little creature in the scheme of things. She was created different by our maker too.

In her little mind, she decided that when she had a family, she wanted her little roaches to know these things. Mum was a good roach.

Well being in a new country, away from her own kind, she met my dad who was not such a good roach. They were not such a good match. He was smaller and a house roach. He had a colored past. He didn't have ambition or work much. Mum got lonely and you know the rest. Mum wanted her little brood to be like her....good for the ecology system. Dad, well you know how house roaches are. They didn't stay together long but they did have eggs that hatched.

Mum was pretty disappointed when all her brood started turning out to be like dad's kind......not the least bit interested in being good. They just wanted to hang out in the kitchen waiting for darkness...and for all the humans to sleep. They got into trouble and caused all sorts of problems. They were slobs and made a mess of things and it was pretty sad. They were not much of an example of helpful insects. Mum was sad.

Then I hatched out. I was bigger than the rest, like her. I was slower than the rest. I had her genes. I was different than the rest. Right away, Mum took me to see the library books and pictures of a different world than the Professors lab. I was her only hope. She needed to show me this different world, before I became corrupted like the other roaches. They would get me into trouble and into their grungy-garbage eating life style if she did not work quickly.

I walked across the books and picture pages of traveled places and I was excited. I wanted to see those places. I was different than all the rest of my kind it seemed. It was hard though. Mum told me it was not going to be easy. I had to be strong. I would be picked on and shunned. I would be an outcast because I didn't look or act like the rest of them. She was right but I spent my time in the Professors lab with those picture books- so I didn't care.

The other roaches didn't want to hang out with a roach who was so different in every way and who had dreams. A roach having dreams. Unheard of....Impossible......but it was so. Mum was there for me though. She knew how it felt to be different...she was different too. She encouraged me and believed in me.Sometimes I was not so sure that being different was such a good thing. There were times when I thought it would be a lot easier not to be different. But Mum expected me to be better and to go places she never had the chance to. Deep down I knew she was right.

What makes me different or you? Only the creator knows. He gives gifts to us all....and sometimes to humans or creatures that you would least expect. I don't know how I came to be different but I am. Once we know we are different, then its up to us to figure out how to get to our dreams and what dreams we want? Isn't that so?

I was watching TV with my human friend, Peter, one night (I will tell you more about Peter in my next chapter) On the newscast there was a story about a young man who has Autism. But the creator gave him an amazing gift. He can look at things like a city and draw it on paper from memory. The picture is precise to the memory. He is becoming world famous. Who would have imagined he would be so gifted with his challenges. I bet he had a lot of people who didn't see how wonderful and amazing he was at first. They just saw his differences. But somebody believed in him. Somebody saw how beautiful he was. The rest is history.

From my travels with Peter...I have seen a lot of places...observed a lot of humans. You are pretty funny and strange from my point of view. What you do does not make sense often...do you realize that?

But because of my human watching, I think all humans and creatures, great and small, all have gifts...whether we are an enlightened roach or one of you humans with physical or mental challenges.

What are your gifts? I know you must have a gift or perhaps more than one. Are you using them? At least I am using my gift to try and make a difference. What difference did you make today?

Next chapter, I will tell you more about me, how I came to meet Peter, my photographer human friend and how I became a world traveler. It just goes to show you that no matter how bad your neighborhood or family circumstances are...or how ugly or uneducated...you can with work and faith ...achieve your dreams. Look at me, Roger R. Roach. I have not done too bad.

Until then, signing out, Roger R. Roach...have a good week humans!