The Dreamer who Learned to Accept Herself

Pros and Cons of Being a Dreamer

There once was a girl who had a unique and complex mind that no one could understand. Because of this, the people who were involved in her early years-such as her teachers, doctors, and counselors-addressed their concerns to her mother and planted seeds of doubt in her mind about the mental state of the child. She would sometimes talk to herself, play with sticks and rocks instead of barbies, and preferred to play alone. Her mother was worried about how she'd develop her social skills, or if she really had any mental disorders like some of her teaches said she did.

Although she was branded as different, no teacher or adult could bring themselves to dislike her. She was sweet beyond measure, and was polite without being told to act that way. Though she did have strange behavior, she didn't impose on anybody. She kept to herself.

"Why don't you go play with the neighbor today?", her mom would ask. "Cause its more fun by myself", she'd reply. And to her, it was. She did not need a group of friends to be happy; she was satisfied with her own mind and imagination. Relationships with people did not matter to her as much as her connection with the world and the cosmos beyond.

She was a stargazer, very much so that every night, when everyone in her house was asleep, she sneaked out of bed and opened the curtain in the living room and looked as deep into the heavens as her eyes allowed her. Though she could not see it, somehow she knew that there was so much more out there than those tiny glowing orbs in the night sky.

As she got older, she began to watch documentaries on the science channels and found that they were far more interesting than the cartoons she'd watch every morning before school. One day, she came across shows about space and the abnormalities of the things that have been discovered. From then on she had a love for the universe. However, whenever she brought it up at school, the students did not understand her rants about black holes or nebulas. The teachers loved her fascination with it, but they didn't exactly understand it completely.

At night was when her mind was most active. Even in her sleep, she had vibrant dreams of being surrounded by a pool of stars and glowing dust, her bodyless self drifting through the universe, going where her curiosity led her. One night, she even dreamed that she was air, free as could be, going to the most magnificent places on earth that she'd only seen through TV screens. The night was her favorite time because she loved her dreams more than the physical world. Soon, she'd learned to dream with her eyes open, and she could even control her dreams when she was awake.

While she was beginning to love the world her mind had created, she was also starting to dislike and even hate the world that she had to live in. She felt burdened by it. As good as watching those documentaries did her, they also helped her to discover the wrong things in the world, such as pollution, deforestation, animal cruelty, crime, murder, lies, etc. She worried about these things all the time. Even in school she felt that she couldn't focus because she knew that while she was working, countless living things had been killed, ecosystems destroyed, and more were living in misery. She carried the weight of the world on her shoulders, and it pained her even more to know that there was little she could do about it.

So, not being able to bear this suffering any longer, she started to kiss reality goodbye. She got criticized terribly for being in her own little world, but she was not ashamed. She embraced it.

Believe it or not, that girl was me. The truth is, I did not choose to be this way, and I had to accept who I am in order to move forward. I've come to believe that this trait I have isn't bad at all. In fact, the only reason I hated it at first was because others had led me to believe that living in your own little world is bad and makes you mental or something. Its false, and now that I have realized that, I've accepted who I am. I want this to be an example to whoever is being pressured to act differently than how they want to. Do not let society change you-you are giving it power by giving in and changing yourself. Don't let the world change you. If you live for others then you will die for a cause that's in vain. I embraced myself, and by doing so I am more happy and confident.