Even the summer sun could not hide what lurked behind the little girl’s deep blue eyes.
In them, was the omnipresent fear she had of disappointment, just like many out there. Unlike others however, her worries were instead about her being the source of disappointment instead. How she used to hope for her mother’s nod or smile of approval when she mastered a new piano piece, or simply be the listening ear for friends in times of need - even if it meant spending hours on the phone well past bedtime. It bothered her when people around her appeared troubled, and worse if she did not know why.
She was taught that happiness was having good moral values, making and seeing others happy, academic achievements, and never once did the little girl question. They became a routine set of values and beliefs she had been indoctrinated to follow since young. While of no harm, they left her trapped in an empty shell - one that would at times, seem oddly disconnected from reality. The real person that she was, probably encased somewhere, which even she knew nothing about.
Still, she chose to believe that the world was as colourful as it had always seemed to her, as she skipped down the forest path home.
