09.14.2007 - 2:17 p.m.

I always wanted to be like Robin Hood. Well, not Robin Hood exactly, I didn't want the hassle of merry men, but some kind of woodwise, bow-carrying hermit who lived in a treehouse and talked to animals, long blonde hair streaming behind me. I'm not sure what I would have eaten, or how on earth I could have kept all that hair from knotting around every twig it touched, but none of that was the point. I wanted to be lovely and mysterious and female, the Woman of the Woods.

Sometimes I knew better. I couldn't live off the woods--I knew nothing about it. Climbing the group of pine trees in my backyard was the extent of my woodcraft. Once I had tried to build walls between them using mud and pine needles, but it washed away every time it rained. Besides, I knew I needed some kind of real job, like being an astronaut or a vet. I couldn't be the Woman of the Woods. I could not actually speak Squirrel or live in a tree. I would have to find another way to be inscrutable and female and strong.

Other times, I still think becoming a hermit would be better. Anyway, what the hell kind of eight year old wants to be inscrutable when she grows up?

-stonebridge

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