Crawling into Myself

Once upon a time, there was a brilliant princess named T. She was also quite beautiful, but she would rather be known for her brightness.  When T was very young, creativity and intelligence radiated from her even in her games. When she played with her dolls, she would create an entire story, complete with unique characters with complicated back stories. She would even act out their parts for them, having a separate voice for each and every doll each and every time she would play with them.

                The Princess’s parents, King and Queen K, were constantly delighted and amused by their young daughter’s antics. Occasionally, they needed to reproach the child for over-rambunctiousness, but it was rare that they actually needed to punish her. When conflicts arose in the royal family, Princess T would run to her tower and hide until her anger passed. She didn’t like conflict. She’d rather let it pass by, even if she had been wronged.  T just wanted everyone to be happy, and to be happy herself. And she was happy because she knew she was a brilliant and beautiful princess.

                Then, at age five, it was time for T’s official education to begin. The Queen had already taught T counting, the alphabet, and some reading. However, the Queen would not be able to continue teaching T because, when the Queen tried to continue the elder princess’s education at the palace, the elder princess hated it. The King and Queen did not want to repeat any errors, so they sent T to the Educational Clique Accomplishments at the Noble Heirs Academy, or ECA of NHA. Since T loved knowledge and loved people, she loved school throughout most of kindergarten, first grade, second grade, and third grade.

                In fourth grade, however, her primary educator was a wicked hag who hated T for her over enthusiasm. T simply cared more about learning about things she believed were important than that which the hag wished for her to study. Additionally, the other nobles in the class were very rude and cruel children, and T wasn’t friends with any of them. After a very long year of miserably boring and lonely studies, T had learned enough to leave the dungeon of the hag and start fifth grade, albeit a little less happily than she had started fourth.

                However, T had a good teacher for fifth grade. She had good friends in the class. She adored the subjects they studied. The lovely princess loved spending a year in that castle, and left adoring both school and the other people she knew there.

                Not surprisingly, in sixth grade, T flourished. She was the top of her class, and always handed in every single assignment. Her teachers still had to reprimand her for bursts of boisterousness and high energy, but they never had to reprimand her for late assignments. T had several good friends in the class, and couldn’t wait to spend time learning with the other children. That all was going to change.

                One day, T was attacked by a dragon in disguise as another noble. She destroyed him, of course, but was left with an invisible scar.  She moved on to seventh grade, where her various teachers noted her intelligence. However, the scar, invisible even to her, broke her will. She realized she could learn more by herself than stuck in a chamber with potential dragons.

                T began reading in the castle library instead of doing the studies her teachers assigned. This neglect of academy assignments followed her to eighth grade, though she handed in more assignments that year than the previous year. One of the subjects she was to study was the language of her nation. She still didn’t do papers she felt were lacking in fiber, but she was perfectly willing to read or write if it was on a subject worth reading or writing about. One such paper she had to write was a personal reflective memoir. After some percolating, she decided to write about a time she went bobbing for apples in an assembly for school. She was quite proud of the finished paper, and wondered if it deserved further recognition. The instructor for the course suggested people submit their papers to be read by a committee, who would then select the three best memoirs to be read aloud by the authors as a part of a festival to mark the end of nine years at Education Clique Accomplishments of Noble Heirs Academy. T decided to submit her paper. Her piece was not only selected, she was to read hers first! She proudly participated in the ceremony, and was sure she would again prosper at her next school, whatever it may be.

                For her next four years of education, she decided to apply to attend Clever Highbrow Snob of Greatly Rivaling Princes Schools, or CHS of GRPS, and was accepted. CHS was a school for those who were both academically motivated and talented. T certainly was talented, but lacked motivation, so she left after two years.

                She then switched to Unborn Heightening Sprout, still of GRPS, but hated everything there. The other noble children certainly lived out the Greatly Rivaling Prince or Princess definition of GRPS. They were rude, unintelligent, and belligerent. By this point, T still loved being with people, but she had learned to stick up for herself. Because of this, her name was slandered, and none were around to defend her honor. It made her wish she had some honor to defend, but, in lieu of that, she simply didn’t want to spend time with people her age anymore. Her teachers were wonderful, but she hated the other authority figures. The class work was far too easy, and primarily took place on a magical rock. Whichever magician had cast the spell upon the rock was sorely wanting in his skills because the magical rock was full of errors and knew very little. Her attendance and participation dropped further still, and she simply knew she could not take another year at UHS of GRPS. At this point, however, with only one year left of secondary school, she couldn’t switch out of GRPS as a whole. She decided to switch to another academy within the kingdom. A good friend, M, who was also a princess, suggested Cresting Heart Station of Greatly Rivaling Princes Schools, or CRHS of GRPS.

                T took the suggestion to heart and immediately applied to switch to Cresting.  She knew they too were inflicted with the ignorance of the magical rock, but far fewer students were tortured with this than had been at UHS. She knew Greatly Rivaling people would be there too, but she already had at least one friend, which was one more than she had at UHS. Most important, the teachers at Cresting were just as phenomenal as the teachers at UHS. She hoped and prayed she would be accepted to Cresting.

                At last, a carrier pigeon arrived with a letter. T opened it with trembling fingers. She was free of UHS and was now a pupil at Cresting Heart Station! She leaped ecstatically and immediately told Princess M they would now be in school together.

At her first day in the new academy, she was shocked. The teachers weren’t the only ones who wanted to help her! The other members of the academy’s staff also did all they could to ensure her a successful year! She gathered her scrolls and began attending all her classes, joyfully absorbing knowledge from true experts.

After a few months in the new school, however, she began struggling with the class of levitation. They needed to understand the basic principles of the world in a formulaic manner, but she suffered. She could not comprehend the ideas they presented her. She still adored her other classes, but she began avoiding classes as a whole so she would not feel stupid. It was just as she had felt when studying alchemy at Clever Highbrow Snob.

Rather than study harder, she entirely stopped doing assignments because she simply could not bear the shame. Missing so many classes caused her to fall even further behind, until at last she simply gave up.

She realized the plain and ugly truth: she was not a princess. She was not brilliant. She was not beautiful. Perhaps she had once been a creative and vibrant member of the royalty, but now she was just a common maiden writing a cynical fairy tale.

Reviews

[Tai Ryens]

This is a clear example of how a talent can be put to waste, lack of motivation taking over us until we simply don't want to do it anymore. Adding to that is the feeling that we were just another face in an ocean of people. What a beautiful penned write, excellent job!

[Chris]

but she did it in a very uncommon and heart-full way... Seems princesses are where you find them... with the royalty marked inside. We can't touch every star in our sky - and it always "hurts" but at least we can try...

[BloodyMary]

Very grim, yet very interesting... I love it! I love the metafore!