There she was, the little girl on
her bike, going so fast it felt like she was flying. At that moment she had her
first dream, or at least the first dream she could remember. She dreamt of
never having to stop, she wanted to stay forever on this bike; the air blowing
her hair, the thrill, the sense of freedom she had, she was living a dream!
She
loved telling stories; she’d make up a world from her imagination, with people
who were as alive as real ones to her. Even though she couldn’t read or write
yet, she’d use her parents’ old recorder and record the stories as if she was
on a radio show. At that moment, she dreamt of sharing her small world with
everyone, that everyone would listen to her stories; but even though no one
used to listen, she was living a dream.
All over her room, she would arrange her
dolls; she’d get her small blackboard and she’d act like a teacher. She was too
caught up in the act; she’d even examine the dolls, and hold detention for the
ones that behaved badly; she’d teach her dolls about kindness, love, happiness,
and everything that made life beautiful! … At that moment, the girl dreamt that
she would one day teach other people, let them see the world through her
innocent eyes, let them know how the world could be a better place one day, or
as she thought. The girl was a dreamer;
she had a million dreams!!
Years passed and the girl kept
wandering between dreams; sometimes, the sky was her limit, and sometimes,
she’d go even beyond the sky. But no matter how far her imagination went, she
never dreamt of that day, she never dreamt of the day she’d start facing the
real world, the day she was given the manual of how to live her life. A manual?
… Yes, a manual that was called “How to kill your dreams!”
At first, the girl was confused; she
couldn’t understand the instructions that everyone used to tell her. But then,
when she looked again, she started to understand the symbols, they weren’t that
far away from what she always dreamt of…
In the manual, the bike she loved
was represented by “Money”; money was the thing that people used to give them
the sense of freedom. Only money couldn’t blow her hair, and couldn’t be as
easy or as natural as flying around with her bike; and most of the time, money
brought evil, hatred, and jealousy to the world. For money, people would do
anything and everything; even if what they did imprisoned them in a life they
didn’t want… She wandered why they were doing all that, when she could get all
the freedom she wanted just by riding the bike?
She also found her other dreams in
the manual as well; she found that other people also have their own worlds and
imagination. Only to her, she knew the different between the story she creates
and the reality she was living in, she was a story teller; but she found out that
not everyone could tell the difference. She found out that some people around
her create that world of “Perfection” in their minds, and then they start to
believe it was true. For some of them, perfection was the love story they were
waiting for, the perfect person that would appear one day and just make
everything peachy! At one point, the manual does say that this dream never
comes true anyway, yet, everyone had to dream it; what else would people do
with their imagination? … The girl never liked the sound of that, yes, she
believed that whatever she could create in her mind, she could create in the
real world; but being a story teller, she knew that what she wanted to create
is not perfection, she knew that in order for the story to be good, it had to be
imperfect; she knew that the imperfection was the perfection that people were
missing out to! … For other people, that perfection was represented in a job, a
house, a car, representing anything that was in the future, anything that was
uncertain to come…
But these were all small dreams;
the girl could just let them go… So what if she didn’t have her freedom or her
fantasies? As long as she had the belief of showing people how the world could
be a better place! That was important to her; that mattered a lot! She thought
that she could do this by so many ways!
She could write, and let her stories do it for her; she could teach, and
through her students she could create this better world. The girl was too
innocent… She didn’t know; she didn’t know that not everyone wanted the world
to be a better place; she didn’t know that some people could live their whole
lives trying their best to make the world a worse place to live in. She didn’t
know that the monsters in real life were way scarier than the monsters in all
of her stories…
The girl was scared… shattered… powerless…
Her bike was broken … her stories were untold … and every
day, the beauty she saw in the world faded away…
The girl wished she never grew up…
The girl’s only option was to let
go of everything she’d ever dreamt of; to keep moving in the scary world that
was full of monsters, seeking the perfection that she knew she’d never find.
That was what the manual said, that was how to be an adult was all about… But
what if, the girl is crazy enough to never let go of her past dreams? What if
the girl believed that the little kid inside of her was the key to her destiny?
What if she believed that someday she would be able to ride her bike again, in
the fresh air and could feel the freedom she wanted at last! What if she
believed that she could find other people who wanted to see the world the way
she wanted to see, and they could all work hard, to make that world the
reality, or at least try their best?
Well, this story remains unfinished;
the girl is still out there wondering if any of her dreams can come true…
Wondering if all of her dreams can come true… Wondering if she should let go
and follow the manual… Wondering if she wants to let go… And she’s just keeps
wandering, between dreams…
