Once upon a time, not long ago, there was a very indecisive little girl, called Teti, who lived in a house surrounded by sunflowers at few meters far from the beach.
Her grandma kept on, telling her that wherever in the world she would have been, every time she was scared, she could have listened to the sweet smashing of the waves against each other and feel at home.
Little Teti used to look at everything around her with enchantment and wonder but the more she was curious to discover everything possible to discover in her pretty tiny village, the more that place was getting smaller and smaller.
One day, she was walking back home on the usual road she used to do at least five times a day, and she suddenly realized she didn't get surprised for anything was on her path anymore.
The weird meow of Ms. Hoody's cat wasn't weird anymore, the bright light blue color of the neighbor hotel didn't look that bright as it used to, and the overwhelming welcome her lithe dog used to reserve her wasn't that overwhelming anymore.
She had the confirmation that something was wrong when her mom cooked some chicken for dinner for the third time in the week and she refused it.
The only moment Teti was happy it was when she looked at the sea. Especially when she stared at the horizon, she knew that there's a place where she could escape with her mind, a place that was full of wonders and thrilling experiences, a place where there was always some new discovery to await her.
One day, the little girl, who in the meantime was turning into a little woman, decided to go for a swim.
She run across the sunflowers' field, while the sun was softly retiring itself for the day under a deep blue duvet.
She immersed herself into the calm and warm water till disappearing beneath its dark veil. She was under the water, breathing, she was breathing for the first time after a long while.
The deeper she was going the more alive she was feeling, and so she kept swimming and breathing and swimming until she saw something: it was a big sparkly shell, just like the one her grandma showed to her once.
Was that the omen which indicated to her that she was arrived?! could that place have been her final destination?!
She decided to reach the surface and when she took her head out of the water - wow - she couldn't believe that something so beautiful could exist outside her tiny pretty village: white sand beaches, palms, skyscrapers, and lights everywhere; she felt like a kid luckily ended up in Willy Wonka's chocolate factory.
Everything she read in the books was in front of her and everything looked even bigger that she expected.
Teti was just hoping that, this time, the dreamy scenery she was looking at was real and she wasn't going to wake up, as in her usual dreams, before touching the beach with her feet.
She swam slowly towards the shoreline, looking back at times to check how far from home she could have gone, but there was no shape of her homeland whatsoever on the horizon.
She kept going forward: the water got lower, slowly step by step, her neck got completely out of it, followed by her shoulders, her breast, her bellybutton, her hips, her knees, her toes... wait her toes?! She suddenly realized her feet were holding that new unknown land: it wasn't a dream!
As she was looking at the image of herself mirrored in the transparent water, she understood it was all real.
Teti was still holding the shell she grabbed into the sea, and she remembered her grandma's words - everywhere in the world you will be, never forget the sound of home-
Holding in her hands that precious treasure the young lady with teary eyes smiled at the sun, coming up from the horizon in that moment, as she was saying hello either -see you soon- , but she knew that it wouldn't have been a goodbye because, as long as she was keeping her shell, she would have carried the love of the people who cared about her and who meant everything to her.
Now she felt ready to enter into the New World: emerald green fields, exotic adventures, music she's never heard, places she's never been, people she has never met, all of this was just waiting for her, few steps ahead.
All she had to do was only throwing her fears away, taking a deep breath and jumping into the dark -jump, Teti, jump - her inner voice was shouting.
Eventually she jumped..into the light.
Chiara
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