Eleanor Dandelion

Twelfth

The princess and the congratulations

"Miss Lilith, what will I do after my lessons are over?" 

"Well, you'll have to wait until next week for our next lesson." 

"I don't mean that, I meant when I finish all the lessons. When I no longer have anything to learn."

What would Eleanor do when she no longer has a reason to study? How do we simply move on from something we've done for years? 

"Oh, that. That's- a question I simply can't answer, for I know not the answer, Princess Eleanor."

How can we decide one day to change everything we've worked for? What do we do after we reach our goal? And what happens if we can't reach our goal at all?

Questions like these tend to keep us up at night. What will we do when we no longer have a purpose to live? What do we do when everything we know fades away? When the last thing that keeps us with a reason to wake up every morning just ends.

Do we give up? Do we find a new purpose in life? If so, why does it have to be so complicated? Why does life have to be so full of issues that need to be resolved, issues that we don't know how to fix?

Why can't life be a walk in the park? Why can't it be as easy as putting on your socks or as easy as taking off your shoes after a long day?

But if life were that easy, would we be happy? Or would it be pointless? 

In the end, humanity finds a way to find problems even in a perfect situation, because that's what humanity does best: finding a problem without questioning if we are the real problem. 

"Then, if you don't know it, who does?"

"That's something that no sane witch knows the answer to, for sometimes, it's best to keep things as they are." 

Eleanor was a smart girl, of course, she was a Dandelion after all, intelligence was something passed down from generation to generation, each Dandelion being smarter than the last couple of generations.

"I see. Thank you, Miss Lilith." 

Although she hadn't gotten the answer she had expected, Eleanor was determined to find it on her own. 

The hour and a half of class Eleanor had passed as quickly as it had started, with Eleanor finishing her assignments as usual. 

But what is usual? Is it the rhythm we are used to, the comfortable routine we have? Is it the one thing we have control over in our lives? 

Do we have control over anything aside from what we call "usual" or "our routine"? How hard is it to stop living in this rhythm? To let go of the one sliver of control over our lives?

Perhaps Eleanor was growing up too quickly, but questions like these kept her awake at night. As it so often keeps the adults awake, Eleanor didn't have time to be a kid. 

"Miss Lilith, I'll leave you in charge of the books here, if you excuse me," Eleanor spoke, her knees flexing as she stood up, bowing her head at Lilith, who only nodded back, as if the two of them weren't friends.