Every morning when I wake, I have to fight a dragon

It is a fierce thing, that claws at me and pushes me down

Weighing me with thoughts on the coming day and what might go wrong

But I always defeat it

And get myself going

But when I look around, I see no one else fought a dragon

I try to complain, but they just brush it off, saying that they faced nothing more than a gecko, that they flicked off their bed

Why was I the only one to fight a dragon?

Why was theirs no more than a lizard?

That’s not fair

…

When something went wrong, I fell in a hole

It wasn’t that deep, but I could not climb out

Nothing accompanied me at the bottom but sticks and rope

Trying and failing to make a ladder

Frustrating and giving up in an endless pattern

Until finally, I climb up the ladder and onto the earth again

I look around and everyone else is out

With stairs and sturdy ladders to get out of their holes

They ask me why I took so long when all they had to do was take a few steps

I try to explain why dilemma

And I was met with rolling eyes and sarcastic  ‘aws’

And even n angry voice

Telling me that I was blowing everything out of proportion

But I had no ladder?

What right had they to tell me that my fight was no fight?

That’s not fair

…

I was walking along one day

And the storm clouds came, thundering and dark

And I was rained on horribly.

When I look around, everyone else has an umbrella

They look at me with confused faces

And ask

“Why don’t you have an umbrella? Get yourself an umbrella”

But they do not offer their own

How do I get an umbrella?

I look around, I have no money, I see no shop for umbrellas

But I find one

A horrible little one, with holes that let in the rain.

People look at me with disdain

Why is this girl so bad at picking umbrellas? She is still getting rained on.

And so I go home, leaving the umbrella with all the others, and stay there

…

People ask me why I fight a dragon, why I have to build a ladder, why I have no umbrellas

But my explanation never pleases.

But what I ask back, is

“why don’t you?”