Ever since I was a child, I’ve always loved dinosaurs and wanted everything to do with them. From having numerous posters to countless toys, my life has been surrounded by these magnificent titans. My parents would tell me stories about how I could name just about every dinosaur that was known in my youth. Pachycephalosaurs, Ankylosaurus, Triceratops; if there was a dinosaur, I would know it. Sadly, my memory has grown hazy over the years but I still never fail to remember the name of a dinosaur or two.

My fondest memories of these creatures comes from a place that I called “the dinosaur park”, which is located in Ogden if I remember right. It was filled with statues large and small of various dinosaurs all painted with beautiful colors and some towering high above me. I would always go there with my family for any and all events, mainly my birthdays. I even had my 16th birthday there. They have a magnificent museum which gave a great deal of information about these past creatures, and even a cool animatronic T-Rex threatening an animatronic Triceratops and it’s two babies. The scenery really captured the prehistoric era as well, with much of the green foliage and plants shrouding the paths and dinosaurs which made for a very incredible experience. It felt like I was actually in the age of dinosaurs.

My parents would buy lots of dinosaur toys for me, even a little dinosaur learning tablet where you would press the button of a dinosaur and it would tell you the name and facts of it. I also had a plethora of dinosaur posters that littered the walls in my room which had dinosaurs from all periods complete with artwork and names. This also helped me to learn more about these beasts and develop an even stronger passion for them. I remember having these cozy brown dinosaur bed sheets with silhouettes of dinosaurs in different colors like red, blue, and green. My room also has a wallpaper trim around the walls which have dinosaur portraits, and it’s still in my room to this day along with my posters.

Steven Spielberg’s “Jurassic Park” films also had a huge impact on me and I loved every single one, despite what people may say about the second and third film. These films are so memorable and nostalgic to me and I thought they were some of the greatest movies I’ve seen. The way the dinosaurs were portrayed was absolutely incredible and done so effectively, they looked so real, especially the fights. On the topic of movies, I remember the Disney film “Dinosaur” also had a major impact on me. I would watch that movie so much in my youth its practically ingrained in my memory. My parents even told me that I would howl along with the lemurs in the film. “The Land Before Time” was another movie and series of movies that I absolutely adored, and still very much do. I’d spend hours watching these animated films and even had a video game centered around it. These films helped fuel my love for dinosaurs even further than before.

Another form of media I had in my younger days was on the original PlayStation my Dad had. It was a game called “Jurassic Warpath” and it was a fighting game with the fighters being dinosaurs. Some included Styracaceous, Giganotosaurus, Velociraptor, Tyrannosaurus Rex, and Allosaurus, just to name a few. I would play this game for hours either on my own or with my family. Seeing the animation they made for the introduction of the dinosaurs on their respective stages was invigorating and I absolutely admired it.
My favorite dinosaur has varied a lot, and it’s still changing very frequently. I think in my youth my favorite has been the Triceratops. Its horns are absolutely immaculate and the way its head looks like a shield is so incredible it’s hard to believe these creatures actually existed. My favorite dinosaur now has, like I said, changed. The Triceratops is still an amazing dinosaur, but I also developed an adoration for the Velociraptor, Ankylosaurus, and Pachycephalosaurs. The Velociraptor’s speed is amazing and its claws are impressive. The Pachycephalosaurs is a really fascinating dinosaur too, with its battering ram-like head it uses as defense. The Ankylosaurus is probably my most consistent top favorite dinosaur due to the way it looks and how its armor is designed. It’s practically a fleshy tank with unbreakable armor and a hammer on the end of its tail.

As I’ve grown older, I don’t buy too many more dinosaur themed items like my old bedsheets or drapes, if mostly because I don’t have the money to spend on those kinds of things, but I do occasionally indulge in a dinosaur t-shirt or other dinosaur themed items that can be used in the long term. Despite this, however, I still have my dinosaur toys stored away so that I can give them to my kids in the future, and help teach them all that I know about dinosaurs so that hopefully they’ll gain the same love and passion as I have. Dinosaurs are incredible creatures and are very interesting to learn about and become obsessed with, they have changed my youth, my life as it is now, and it will even impact my life in the future.