I am only a little girl.   Why must there be so many rules, I don’t want to learn how to set the table.  I want to roam free and be able to squat down and play marbles with the boys.  Why is it if my hem is short I am a slut, who says I don’t want to be a slut.  I want to be who I want to be not what a “girl” should be.  This isn’t fair always being taught something, maybe I want to learn something on my own.  Life isn’t fun with all these rules.

I am only a little girl.  I do not want to iron father’s pants, who cares if there’s a crease. If I want to sing at Sunday school, I am going to.  I am tired with being unhappy my mother will never be proud.  Everything I do is wrong, there is nothing I do right.  I just want to be accepted for the girl I really am.  I want her to stop trying to change me to be like the other girls.

I am who I want to be.  I will not set the table or cook or clean or hem or get cotton.  I will play marbles with the boys and wear my skirt shorter then it should.  I will sing benna at Sunday school.  I will eat fruit on the street and do every other thing you made a rule for me to follow.

Then my mother snapped at me and kept going with the list of rules.  It was all just a dream I would never say that to my mother.  I must be the “girl” she wants me to be.