In nursery school we had a dress-up box filled with fashion treasure. My favorite items were shiny gold heels that I drowned in but a lot of girls loved those shoes so every break time was sample sale training for 5 year olds. I was a shy kid and I used to let everyone go ahead of me. One day we had to find props for the annual school play and I really wanted to wear those shoes. We had to try on different pairs and I pretended to fall and stumble. When it was time to try on the gold ones I pulled it together and despite an amused look from the teacher, I got to wear them.

Maybe I really did lose my balance on the others and I'm just filtering the memory through my adult brain because, how long can we really stand tall on our own two feet when we deny ourselves what we want to make everyone else feel comfortable? Why do we have to turn the volume down or dull the sparkle? What are we afraid of? I'm glad that little girl found some chutzpah. It's time for her to come out and play ;)