“Mommy can you tell me a story?” I was lying in bed wearing my pooh bear pajamas, while my mother was tucking me in. It was dark; I could see thousands of stars out the window and I could hear the crickets chirping.

“What kind of story?” My mom’s smile was so genuine, I was all she cared about and she loved me so much. Her brown hair fell into her face and I reached forward to tuck it behind her ear.

“One where the hero saves the lady and they live happily ever after.” Back then I still believed in “happily ever after.”

“Well I already told you all the stories that I know.”

“Then make one up.” She stared out my open window, as if she was in another world, perhaps the world of the story she was about to tell me. I waited patiently under my chocolate chip cookie patterned blanket hugging my smiley face pillow.

“Once upon a time,” she started while grinning. “There was a girl named Isabella, who was always locked away in her room studying so she would know all she could about the world for when she was ready to leave her room and go outside. What she didn’t know was that if you wanted to understand the world outside you had to live in it like everyone else. She would spend so much time reading about it, she only knew about what others felt and saw, but she didn’t care, she knew that she was going to see what was outside eventually. One day, after reading a really long book she was inspired to finally go out and see the world, but when she opened her front door she fainted. She wasn’t ready to face the world, so she decided that she would study a little more before she tried leaving again.


“Another year passed and Isabella tried again but this time she couldn’t even open the front door. She went to her room and cried, but now she focused even harder on studying. After another year she decided she would try again but this time she couldn’t even look at the door. Isabella went to her room and cried some more, and then went back to studying. She was reading a book about love when she heard a tapping on her window, she got up and tried to move the curtain, but she was to afraid. ‘Hey I know your in there’ yelled a voice from outside. Isabella didn’t know what to do, she thought that maybe it was a robber but then she wondered why would a robber be knocking on her window?

“‘Please, I won’t hurt you’ the voice said. Isabella decided that she would at least look at who was outside, so she moved the curtain just a little bit. There stood a boy with short brown hair and beautiful green eyes, she couldn’t believe it. ‘Let me in’ the boy commanded Isabella didn’t want to let the guy in, he could have hurt her, but while she was staring into his eyes she knew that this boy would do her no harm. Isabella pushed hard on the lock of the window which hasn’t been opened in years.

“‘Thanks’ he said as he crawled through the window. Isabella knew words lots and lots of them but she couldn’t find her voice so she just stared and nodded at him. ‘What’s your name’ the boy asked, and Isabella wanted so badly to tell him, but again her voice was nowhere to be found. ‘I’m Josh’ he said while he extended his arm towards Isabella. She didn’t know what to think, she had read about hand shakes before but she had never actually seen one, so she just stared at Josh’s hand. ‘Are you alright’ Josh asked as he moved closer to her. Isabella backed away a little and nodded her head.

“‘I’ve never seen you before’ Josh said as he had a seat on Isabellas’ bed. Isabella looked at her book case and Joshes eyes followed. ‘You read a lot. Is that why you never go outside’ Isabella nodded. ‘Don’t you want to know what the world’s like?’ Isabella nodded, picked up a book and brought it to him. The book was covered in flowers and hearts and was called ‘the world outside’. The boy looked at the book and shook his head, ‘That’s not how it works. If you want to know about the world you need to go explore it.’ Isabella was confused, she never thought about this and she had never read about it, what would she do?

“‘Come with me’ Josh held out his hand towards Isabellas again, this time she held it tightly and nodded. ‘But first’ he said, looking sad ‘wake up.’”



“So what do you think it means?” Emily asked. Emily has been my best friend since forever, were practically sisters.

“Does it need to mean anything?”

“All dreams have a deeper meaning?”

“Oh, do they? So that dream I had the other night about being best friends with a goldfish named John, that meant something.” She shrugged her shoulders and thought for a moment.

“Well maybe you had a goldfish when you were younger and you wished that you were closer to it.”

“Yeah right.”

“So I think the moral of your story is… that you should stop worrying about what the world will be like later, you’ll never get out that way. You should spend your time outside, living your life to the fullest.”