A little story.

     Once Upon a time there lived a little girl. She lived each day feeling worry free because she had a roof over her head, lots of friends to play with, a family that loved her and her creative imagination. A typical day for this little girl consisted of playing in her backyard with her imaginary friends, hanging out at her Grandmothers house or going to work with her Mom and playing make believe in the office. She would imagine different worlds each and every day. Sometimes she was Princess Jasmine who just discovered Aladdin, other days she decided to be a mermaid and divided her house up into what was under water and what was land.  Her most favorite game was to put on the movie Mary Poppins and pretend to be all the characters and dance and sing just like they did. She lived her days fully and passionately. 
      
      Little by little and day by day this little girl started to grow up. She went to school, she met friends, she lost friends to other friends, she started to see that not everything was all sunshine and rainbows. As she traveled through time and got older, she started to doubt herself. She doubted who she was and how she looked. When she got to middle school she never saw herself as one of the pretty girls, she saw herself as a girl that was growing up and going through a lot of change. She discovered how fun it was to have a crush on someone, she discovered how great it was to have friends that were nice to her and thought she was funny. This little girl started to grow and change into a young woman. She never really got in trouble, she always saw what happened to her other classmates if they did something wrong and she decided she didn't want to be one of those kids. She was who she was and she tried really hard to accept that. 
      
      This young woman quickly grew up. It seemed the last remaining years of school went by very quickly and before she could even blink her eye she was getting ready for college. In the years leading up to her High School graduation day she had discovered her imagination again. She had found a circle of friends that truly accepted her and her beautiful mind. Needless to say, she was feeling pretty darn good as she headed into college. 
      
      She grew a lot there. She met life long friends, she learned a lot about what to do and what not to do. She loved. She hated. She cried. She laughed. She changed. Her imagination became less beautiful because she let it turn into worry. She let worry encompass her and she became trapped in her own body and mind. As the college years moved forward she became unrecognizable. She had lost herself and it was so bad she didn't even know she was lost. She was in a relationship that was toxic and uninviting. Her mind was clouded with doubt and worry and regret and hateful thoughts all the time. She stopped believing in herself, she stopped thinking she was remotely pretty. She was just a person on this earth trying to stay above water.  The little girl inside of her went away for some time.  
      
     Now, it could have been the angels up above that helped her, or maybe it was just fate. But, something changed. It had to. The demon that had stolen her identity finally showed his true colors and he was vanished to another land. Literally vanished. The light entered her soul again and her imagination started to come back. She started imagining what her life could and would be. She saw a world where she was the hero and she was the beautiful woman that she had always aspired to be. 
      
     As time moved forward, she grew up even more. She found the joy of being on her own. She went on many adventures and met a lot of new people. She was reminded of what it was like to have crushes and feel giddy. She lived her days much like her child self. She let her imagination take her to amazing places and she found her again. As time moved forward she decided she wanted the opportunity to share who she was, truly was, with someone else. She went on a quest to find him. She went on many bad dates with people that didn't really get it. She didn't let that stop her though, she kept going. She kept believing that she would find that one person she kept thinking about. She knew he was out there. And sure enough, one day he just was there. At the time she didn't know that he  was the one she had been searching for, but he knew and thats all that matters. He didn't give up on her when she was being stubborn, he just waited patiently for her to realize that he was the one all along. Luckily, she listened to her heart and let him in. She found that she was more herself than ever. She was so excited that she got to keep all the special powers that lived inside of her.  She didn't feel lost anymore. She was found. 
     
     I tell you this story because I have noticed something as of late. 
     
     I consider myself an observer. I watch what goes on around me and then form my opinions on the matter. Lately, I have started to see the adults around me as their little kids selves. I have tried to use my imagination to see into their young lives. I look at Hillary Clinton and see just a little girl in dance class, or I look at some of the strong Olympians and see their child self wanting to watch TV instead of practice. It has been a fun little game for me to play and I think it has helped me a lot to not take things and people so seriously. Through my little game I have discovered something that I feel needs sharing. I have discovered that when we get older, something happens. We lose that little kid self inside of us and we allow our imagination to turn in to something different. Some turn it into worry, some turn it into happiness and others turn it into ego. I know that ego is important because it motivates us to keep going and assures us that we can do certain things, but having too much ego is questionable. I don't know, I think when we make big decisons or say certain things it's important to ask ourselves, "what is driving me to say this? or "what is driving me to do this?" Is it ego? Is it excitement? Is it fear? If we ask ourselves and allow a time to check in, then we will always be driven by truth. If you can look in the mirror and be proud of who you are and what you represent, then that's all you can ask for. 

 The little girl inside of me gets sad sometimes by the ways of the world and how some adults have chosen to act, but I have to keep reminding her that her and I have come so far and if we just stick together, we are unstoppable. 

The End.