No attempt to change me worked and I can say the same for Life. I’m sure Life likes me for that. Life is generous and she knows that her shoulder belongs beneath your hand. If you take your hand off her shoulder, she forgets where her shoulder belongs, pops up , and puts her hand on your shoulder. That way, she can hold you down when don’t hold her down. Life loves strong people. I’m a strong person. So, it’s no surprise Life and I became best friends when I was very young. Life always came to my room after I got in trouble. My parents would send me up there to think about what I did. Life came with me and told me it didn’t matter. I didn’t have to think about my actions. I learned my lesson and there was no more to it than that.

I remember I wore this beautiful dress to the spring preschool concert but, my mom made me cover it up with a sweater. I was angry with her for that. According to her, it was too cold outside not to wear an ugly itchy sweater over your beautiful silk dress. All the nice, obedient kids walked up on stage in front of the whole town smiling. I stood on stage, peeled my sweater off, threw it on the ground, and gave my mom a dirty scoff-like look. I don’t remember what happened after that. All I remember is wearing my dress without a sweater covering it. Taking the sweater off was worth whatever punishment came afterward.

In kindergarten class one day, I had to sit in the Naughty Corner simply because I stood up for what I believed in. We were practicing drawing ms. I knew how to draw an m because there are two ms in my name. I drew the most perfect m in the class and I was extremely proud of it. When my teacher saw it, she told me to erase it because she thought it needed a tail. I was outraged. I saw my parents write before and they never put tails on their ms. If she hated it, fine. I was keeping my m. I had to sit in the corner and watch everyone else finger paint but, I was the real artist for holding on to my work. For that, I owe credit to my m. Later that day, all the “good” kids picked a prize from the treasure box but I didn’t even though I was already punished. I still get angry when I think about that m. I don’t understand why my teacher punished me twice for it. I could never think of regretting standing up for myself. That’s why my fundamental philosophy of life is “Act on what you believe in. You will never prove to regret it.”