my country

I daydream more than anyone else I know.

Current daydream:

Miles and miles of blue, with cotton white clouds majestically hanging here and there. The wind blows, it sweeps, it sails right through my hair. Long and curly (neither of which is true in reality), my locks just hang against my plaid button-up without care. I'm wearing classic denim and classic boots, and both are covered in mud. I can't forget the cowboy hat, and the bandanna hanging out of my pocket casually. I am straight out of a cliche Western, modern-day, struggling ranch movie... I've got style.

My horse is quiet. She or he... Let's make this decision together. If the horse is a male, he's noble and calm, but has a violent streak in him. If I ride him in this daydream, I'm extremely skilled and most likely have a rebellious attitude. But if the horse was a female, she would be strong and serene, with speed like no other. I don't need to be dangerous or wild; I only need a sense of freedom. I think that is our answer: the horses is female, and her name is Penelope like Odyseuss' wife.

Because I'm a girl of the West who knows her Greek literature.

And that magnificent animal will gallop across the open prairie with life and a ferocity only felt when the sun rises with grandeur over the mountainscape. You can't help but gasp at it's beauty, how any creature could be so unified with the earth in its step. And somehow, despite a lack of equestrian knowledge, I am sitting on its back. I'm right there with it, racing the wind, challenging the breeze with a smile on my face.


I'd like to think that this dream is welling up from within me because I am from Colorado. And even though I was raised in suburbia and the only pair of cowboy boots I owned were pink at age 4, and that I can count on one hand how many times I've been on a horse's back, I am still from the West.

Sometimes I feel like my surroundings can't contain me, whether that be Massachusetts, glistening Cape Ann, school, dorm, room or maybe even my own skin, this spirit just pushes and tugs to be let out.

My spirit wants to be the girl with the wind in her hair. The spirit of a sweet girl.