Love Is a Mirror
Anonymous/Unknown
Janie looked into the mirror and saw herself, little Janie with the freckles scattered across the bridge of her nose. She looked and thought, Little Janie, age fifteen... what an ugly duckling!
It's never nice when other people make remarks about you—even if they're true. You know that you have buck teeth and you hate them, hate them as much as the brace that you wear to straighten them out. You know that someday they will be just right and the brace will be gone, but until that time you feel afraid to smile. You want to cry whenever anybody mentions it even if they don't mean any harm.
In the mirror you see your long arms and legs—long, that's the word to use. And you'll scratch anybody's eyes out that says they're skinny.
The short cropped red hair completes the picture of an average young girl of fifteen. A girl that hopes to grow up to be pretty, but can see no signs of it now. Janie the Tomboy, fifteen years old, how sorry you feel for yourself. Still a girl and you want to be a grown-up woman, for you are in love for the first time. You are in love with a boy who could never possibly love you. He is two years older, a star athlete; all the older girls simply rush the life out of him. He couldn't possibly notice you, but you are going to make him see you. Love will find a way, you keep telling yourself that, you say it over and over again every night when you cry yourself to sleep.
You look into the mirror and remember the Janie who was fifteen years old, you look at her and smile. You can smile now Janie for you are twenty-one years old—and fifteen year old Janie's dreams are all coming true. This lovely white dress is your wedding dress, the dress you are going to marry Bob in.
You turn and walk down the steps to your destiny, smiling.
