Braid Your Own Hair. Tie Your Own Ribbons

A little girl with brown plaits and blue ribbons

once wondered if she’d ever find real friends at kindergarten, while all the other boys and girls were playing with light sabers and having tea-parties, she sat in the corner, watching them. She tried playing along a few times, but felt really out of place.

A little girl with brown plaits and blue ribbons learned to read chapter books at age 6. In primary school when all the other boys and girls were playing scarecrow tiggy and four-square, she crept off to the library and got lost in stories she could only dream of, where girls would band together to fight off monsters, or become fairies, or ride unicorns at night when the world was asleep.

A little girl with brown plaits and blue ribbons wanted her own best friend. A best friend to go shopping with and to giggle at all the funny clothes at the old people’s stores. A best friend to watch movies with and hug when it got scary. A best friend to make blanket forts with and hide from all the grown-ups. she saw all the other girls at school having fun together, but felt like an intruder when she tried to join in.

A little girl with brown plaits and blue ribbons sometimes had friends in high school, but they came and they went and eventually left her alone. She tried talking to everyone around her, but never truly connected with anyone. For years, she wondered whether there was something wrong with her, why everyone else would have group chats and birthday parties without her. She hated when the teacher allowed the class to pick their partners, because she was always left with no one.

The little girl with brown plaits and blue ribbons became a big girl. She realised that sometimes the world is not a nice place, and that friends who left her and who stopped caring about her and who didn’t text her for weeks at a time were not real friends at all.

She learned to braid her own hair and tie her own ribbons and finally found solace in solitude.