Dexter Comerford, 9: ‘The difference between children and adults? Children are active’

[ irishtimes.com/generations ]

Dexter Comerford lives in Dublin

My first memory is me saying my first word. It was “door”. And then I kept saying “door”, and slamming my toy cars into the door.

I play football in my spare time. I like to be active. I support Chelsea, because my mum and dad went to college in London. I play left wing, and so does my favourite player, Eden Hazard. He plays for Chelsea, and won Player of the Year last year.

The things that make me happiest are playing on my Xbox and scoring a goal playing football.

The oldest person I know is Granny Carmel. I don’t know how old she is.

What do I think of adults? They keep talking and they don’t take any notice of you, especially if they meet another adult they haven’t seen for a while. The difference between children and adults is that children are more active. Adults just relax after eating, but children might go out and play football.

The scariest thing that ever happened to me was in the Easter holidays this year. I went to Northern Ireland and I went to the rope bridge [at Carrick-a-Rede, in Co Antrim]. You’re meant to go across it with an adult, and I didn’t know that.

I went across on my own, and the wind was blowing and it was really scary, and I was being blown around, and I thought, I hope this isn’t my death time. I looked down and it wasn’t nice.

The best present I ever got was my iPod, for my ninth birthday. You can play games and you can listen to the radio. I like the radio.

My favourite thing I own is the Xbox. If I had lots of money I'd buy an iPad. The programmes I like watching most are Match of the Day and Dennis the Menace and Gnasher. Gnasher is his dog, and it's spelt with a G.

At school I like PE and history and art. We have girls at our school, but girls are boring. They’re not very sporty. I don’t think they like sports.

I like making origami. That means making things out of paper. We made paper helicopters, and I designed my own one. It was really hard to make. It had long blades.

We went out into the yard, and I threw mine. It went all the way up and up, and it twirled and twirled and made 31 spins. It went on to the roof of the school, and it never came back.

Everyone was screaming and asking me how I did it. That is the thing I am probably proudest of in my whole life. That was yesterday.

If I had a wish it would be that I could fly. And that I could be invisible.

My favourite food is pizza, and what I don’t like to eat are cooked carrots. I help my mum to bake. We make cakes and crumble.

When I’m older I’d like to play football professionally. But I know it’s hard to be good at it. I’d like to be an artist. Not an artiste. An artiste is someone who sings, and I don’t like singing.

I don’t really believe in God, although he’s meant to be kind and love everyone. Because I believe that when people speak to you it’s rude if you don’t speak back to them, and if you turn your head up to the sky and say, “God, do you like my shoes?” he doesn’t say anything.