The New New World of Mystery

By CALEB FOX

Staff Reporter

The hardest thing a person can do is to write about themselves, or at least that’s the hardest thing for me. So, when my boss, Marg Jackson, told me that writing a column was like writing a diary, I was immediately intimidated. However, on the third draft – this draft – I think I finally got it right.

I realized that I’ve been writing about myself during my entire career as a writer, at least in my early career. This career started in sixth grade in Mrs. Clark’s classroom at Cloverland Elementary, with my first best friend and I silently deliberating over a Google Document about what book we wanted to write. The little future tellers we were titled the story “The New World of Mystery,” and what a mystery it was.

The cast, setting, and plot were constantly changing because we were too; we could never be convinced of the best way to write it because as soon as we did that, the next best way walked through the door. We had some idea of where we wanted to go, though; we knew we wanted to say something. I know it’s horribly vague, but it’s true.

Even though we were sixth graders, we knew we had stories to share and the ability to do so.

However, instead of saying these things ourselves, we had characters do it for us, so I had Leo Wolf, a name obviously hand-picked by a sixth grader. Leo Wolf was young, he was the middle child, and he was imaginative because I was all of those.

Like me, Leo Wolf had to deal with his first cosmic-level enemy – growing up.

What felt like a 1000-mile journey from elementary school to junior high was scary, and that was “The New World of Mystery” for me. For Leo, though, he had to part ways with his comics, toys, and old friends and say hello to the blazing summer heat of the California Central Valley. Both of us had it hard.

In short, the story revolved around staying young, and no, not physically or intellectually, but mentally. Leo Wolf did so by entering “The New World of Mystery,” which was found in a rundown gas station, which was my own little Narnia closet. This gas station opened into the vast world of everything cool and exciting to a middle schooler. There was magic, cartoons, toys, and most importantly there was complete and utter awe. Although given the years since its inception, “The New World of Mystery” hasn’t been finished. That means I have not followed my own philosophy to a T, but that’s okay because I don’t think any of my characters would follow anything to a T and that makes me more like Leo and every other character I write about. So, I guess that makes writing columns easy because, in a way, I’ve just been writing one long diary my whole life: a diary with different chapters, characters, and so many convoluted plots that I stopped keeping track of all of them years ago.

That brings me to today, a sophomore in college with a real 1000-mile journey barreling into my life. That journey being an 11-hour plane ride and a four-month study abroad semester in Cambridge, England, and that is truly “The New World of Mystery.” Hopefully, Leo has taught me a few things, and I can be ready for a changing world that is way too ready to want to change me.

Caleb ‘Jebb’ Fox is spending his summer working as a staff reporter for The Oakdale Leader, The Riverbank News and The Escalon Times. He can be reached by calling 209-847-3021.