Make A Wish
The beautiful dark sky that engulfs the silent city in the night embraces it with affection and comfort. It is delicately decorated with glittering stars scattered on the black canvas above; as they shine down on the sleeping city, beams of hope these stars shall provide.
Why is it a habit, or tradition, to wish upon a star?
Perhaps it’s the giddy feeling of letting your heart decide fairly quickly what you wish for before you lose sight of the star. Maybe it is the inexplicable, passionate feeling of belief — one that much resembles a child’s belief in fantasies like the Tooth Fairy, or Santa Claus, Peter Pan, and Jack Frost. Adults feel it too. Deep inside each grown man and woman is a young version of themselves, waiting to take charge of the steering wheel in their minds, and crucially remind them of what they once truly believed in as children, of what they have allowed the world to force them to forget over time.
As lunatic as it may sound, it is proven that fairytales manage to keep people sane when they have to cope with the harsh reality of the world in which they live in. Think about it for a minute. When you are shoved into a dramatically dreadful situation which you see no escape from, what does the little child in your head tell you? Quite disappointedly, I bet you no longer hear it because you’ve trained yourself to ignore that voice, to shun it’s vocal waves and disregard it completely as time had passed over the years. Sometimes I’m guilty of it too. But if you can hear it, does it not desperately try to remind you of the hero in the tale told to you many years ago about how he triumphs over his obstacles and defeats his villain? If you were to listen to that younger version of yourself now and actually, truly believe in their advice, would you not feel comforted?
As children, we are told such stories because it is the only way we can learn about what life has to offer for us. We learnt life lessons in the form of fiction and imagination, and sometimes we add our own exciting twists of pure fictional details, such as super powers and magical abilities — but that is how children get to remember things. If the story is as boring and bleak as that dreaded math textbook that still haunts you in your dreams every now and then, the children will not remember a single thing.
This is why we are fully capable of recalling old fairytales told to us in our childhood. We remember quite vividly how Cinderella idiotically lost track of time and had to make an escape before her identity could be exposed. We recall clearly how Peter Pan absolutely loathed growing up (and we really cannot blame him for it, now can we?) and so he chose to escape to a land of permanent youth.
We remember them because they were memorably fictional (which caught the attention of a child), yet possessed some level of reality simultaneously (which gave the child a life lesson to remember for the rest of their life).
Although they hold some non-fictional truth, our fabricated myths, stories and fairytales are little, glimmering stars of brightness in our lives that keep us moving forward during our worst days imaginable. They’re not called Happy Endings for no reason.
Why are children uncomplicated people? They’re uncomplicated because they do not trouble themselves with the brutality of reality this world forcefully shoves onto you. Remember, the world will only dump its miseries on you if you allow it to.
Children keep a balanced ratio of reality and fantasy, and perhaps that is why they tend to be happier than adults. What you need to do is remember the core fictional stories you were told repeatedly as a child, and grasp on to them with an iron-tight grip, because believe me, you need them on days where you wished your life was a fairytale.
When you stand there one night by your window, sulking and staring up at the merry moon that is gazing down at you in return, with the twinkling stars singing for you all the way from outer space, you will catch yourself subconsciously making a wish.
And when you do catch yourself, you will remember the days you used to make wishes all the time as a child and believed they’d come true.
Where did your belief go? Why did it fade away?
Remember your stories, and remember how uncomplicated you used to be, and for once, just smile and truly believe that your sneaky little subconscious wish, might actually come true, because when you truly and persistently believe in something, it actually happens.
So don’t let go of your youth.
