An angry, frustrated twelve year old girl stood at the end of Main St with her family and looked up at Cinderella Castle. In that moment her life would be changed forever. It was December 1990, the week between Xmas and New Years, unlike any other holiday week she had ever known. there was no snow on the ground, she wasn't bundled up in her winter best, in fact she wore her new sun hat and her best imitation of whichever celebrity she was obsessed with that month. She had not learned her own style yet, so keen to be anybody but herself, wanting to forget the reality back at home. She hadn't come to feel the magic, determined even that she would be having a horrible time, surrounded by adults that couldn't possibly understand her and a brother that she had no time for.
And yet, as she stood gazing down the long street that promised so much, she forgot. For here she had found the ultimate escape from reality. It was like being put into a bubble of perfection, it was as if all the things she felt lacking in her own life could be found here. For this was the land where fairytales come true, where kindness and smiles became infectious and the norm, where music of a forgotten time and images she felt so familiar filled the air, where the smell of popcorn and candies intoxicated her head, and where to be anything but a child would be like poisoning the air around. She forgot her bravado, she let her walls slip, and for that precious time she could recapture a childhood that she had not realised she had forced away so harshly and so abruptly in the summer of her 9th birthday.
And with each inviting step she took down that street the bricks that she had fought so hard to build came tumbling down one by one, and the steps became a run. A run from the front and cold she showed to the world, to the acceptance of love of those with her and an embracing of the happiness all around her. Her grandparents, at that moment in time, could not possibly have realised how this trip and this moment would come to change and re-shape the twelve year old in front of them. It was almost as if the girl regressed to see her new surroundings through the eyes of a wonderous five year old, taking in the facades and settings as real, that the magic was there for her alone. And characters she had long forgotten about came to life, rides were a chance for her to escape and become part of the story, treats tasted as if Tink herself had sprinkled them with pixiedust for how else could they taste that good? She was welcomed as if she was family, she was one of them, they knew she understood this magical place as they did.
And with each new experience her eyes grew wider, she didnt walk around a lagoon, she walked around the world, travelling to new countries, tastes, sights. She travelled into her favourite movies, she went to the moon, she flew into space with captain EO, she shrunk to the size of an ant, she became friends with mice, dogs, ducks and chipmunks and never questioned that this was unusual. And of course in the case of this twelve year old slash five year old she did not have the patience to let the adults decide which experience would be next so comandeered the park maps and led them on her magical journey. not that these were parks of course, they were her playgrounds of magic and fantasy.
18 years later and the woman she has become has never forgotten. For she finds a way often to revisit her magical wonderland. She may know deep down that what she sees is an illusion, she may think more carefully about which path to take, but in her heart, with that first sight of 'her' Cinderella Castle, the outside world becomes the fantasy and the bubble becomes the reality, for it is all waiting just for her, she does not question the how and why, she is the five year old who believes in magic as real, where characters are her friends and everything including her has been sprinkled with pixiedust. And as hard as it may be sometimes, when her days seem a challenge too tough to rise to, she can close her eyes and smell the candy, hear that music, see the lands waiting for her and she knows that she will always have just a little pixiedust wherever she goes.
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