Unpacking.

[alasanon]

When your self-image is predicated on things that other people have said, it's very difficult to break past it and come out safe on the other side.

When one or two or five people tell you (or just one, vehemently enough for five), for example, that your hair is one of your most beautiful features, no matter how much you may try to pretend that it's not relevant, it can stick, if you are the sort who likes to please people.

And if it sticks hard enough, it may become ingrained. And if it sticks long enough, you may begin to think that it was your idea all along.

But there remained a niggling voice at the back of my head that remembered those words, said without intent to harm, but striking with the force of a thousand swords. I have finally chosen to enclose them in a soap bubble and release them to the ether where they belong. There is so much more to me than my hair.

Who am I, without these long curls?

Well, I said with a slight smile, those belong to another name and a younger face. I've learned a few things since then.