Birthdays only happen once a year. However, special birthdays happen once in a lifetime. On August 12, 2009, I turned 16. The day had finally come, the one I have been looking forward to all year. All my friends were 16 and now, finally, I was 16, too.

My mother always told me “patience is the key to success,” and then she would tell me a story about a king and his two daughters and how I matched one of them.
Once there was a king who had two daughters. One was very rude, spoiled and never cared about anyone but herself. And the other one was very intelligent, liked to help others and was a great daydreamer. Their birthday was coming up very soon, and their father called them to talk.

“My lovely daughters,” said the king.

“Soon it is going to be your 16th birthday; one of you has to start helping me rule the country. Both of you have to tell me what you would to change our country for the better.”

The rude one said, “ I would give people more days to work and create a beauty salon.”

The king was puzzled “How will a beauty salon help the people?” he asked.

“Make them pretty and make me prettier than everyone else.”

The king then asked his second daughter, what would she do?

“Father, I have imagined you asking me this question so many times. I will try to create a better place as much as I can so that the people would love it forever just like out of a dream.”

The king smiled and said, “You have a great imagination and heart. For that one day you dreams will come true and you will see that reality will be even better than your dreams.”

In the year 2000, when I was in the 2nd grade, I remember sitting in class pretending to listen to a boring math lesson and instead dreaming of my sweet 16. I imagined myself to be like Cinderella that night. With a beautiful dress, surrounded by everyone I know and most importantly having an amazing time. My teacher would always interrupt my daydreaming. I never liked him. He was not very tall, had barely any hair, and always had candy in his mouth. I hated the way he would say my name,
“Lenora!” he screamed, “What did I just say?”

I would simply apologize and say I wasn’t paying attention. He just kept on chewing his candy and went back to the lesson. As he went on with the lesson, so did my daydreaming. I kept wondering what color dress would I have and right in the middle of my thoughts I was caught off guard, because the teacher said “Learn the material and be prepared for tomorrow.” At that point, I felt like he would say that on purpose since my initials are L.B. Little did I know that reality was even better than my dreams.

When people are younger their imagination is very big and creative. As they get older in some people it gets smaller; in me it just kept being improved. The party I was waiting for so long had finally happened. All my closest friends having as much fun as me and best of all I got my dream wish, I was Cinderella. I had a beautiful dress, with the most amazing design. It was in between the color green and blue, mostly like the color of the ocean, and I just sparkled. How often does it happen that what you can dream in your childhood, many years later becomes reality? This was just something unbelievable.

After such a wonderful night; watching my guests leave was somewhat upsetting. It was upsetting because my night to shine came to an end. Although it ended, out of it I got a great memory to last me forever. In your dreams you imagine to be whatever you want, do whatever you want and it is the best feeling in the world and once those dreams turn into reality you know that life is worth living.