Stick Girl

Once upon a time, there was a little girl.

Stick Girl was a happy child. She liked to play pretend; she would pretend almost anything. 

She imagined herself as a pioneer on the Oregon Trail, a sailor on a ship, 

an Elf in Middle Earth at the time of the War of the Ring, a Jedi apprentice who seemed a magnet for trouble.

She imagined herself as an orphan in an orphanage, part of poor British family in London, or an inhabitant

of CandyLand.

When she wasn't pretending, she was writing stories or reading stories. 

But no matter how many different lives she led, she knew who she was; she never wondered who she was.

She was sure.

But at last, the inevitable happened.

Something Stick Girl had always dreaded.

She began to grow up.

It was subtle at first.

She almost didn't notice.

But when she did, she railed against her fate, but she could not change it.

Until one day, when she realized; the change had come whether she wanted it or not.

Now she looks more like this:

And she is no longer sure.

She leads less lives than she did, yet struggles now to find her place.

She asks, "Who IS Stick Girl?"

Something she used to be sure of.

She still writes stories, and she still reads them, but much else has changed.

It's been years since she last pretended she was a Jedi, or any other of those things.

School, work and sports have taken up much of the time she to spend playing.

Instead of playing pretend with her friends, now she simply sits talks.

Most of the time she is still happy.

But other times, she wonders.

"What happened?" She wonders.

She cares for things now she never did before: Her hair; her clothes.

She struggles to find herself, despite that now she lives only one life instead of many as she did before.

Sometimes she wishes for the old days back.

The times when everything was simpler.

A time when she could be whoever she wanted and still be herself.

She wonders when everything changed.

And she wonders why.