There once was a girl who believed she couldn’t.

She perceived herself to be the most despicable human being in existence, and failed to notice that her greatest obstacle in life was not the way others saw her, but how she saw herself.

She was unique; an artist with the incredible talent to express herself through many mediums. Nevertheless, she thought the worst of herself to be the only thing others saw in her. What she did not realize was that what made her different was not a disadvantage, but rather her greatest asset.

One night, the worried girl found herself in the midst of an unknown place. Growing panicked, she searched for the normalities in her life, including the people who teased her, her seemingly poor grades, and her crush that was supposedly “out of her league”. When those things appeared to be absent, the girl grew increasingly confused, and proceeded to walk aimlessly until she collided with a rather large glass wall. Irritated with her ignorance towards this now obvious structure, she came to notice a small key pad located towards the end of the wall. Upon touching it, the machine made a shockingly loud noise, but denied the girl entry.

Intrigued by this unfamiliar object, the girl, now fully woken from her initially drowsy state, began to walk down the side of the glass wall. In doing so, she noticed panels of mirrors, each with a different action listed above it. Abruptly, the first mirror to the girl’s right enthusiastically spoke the word “dance”. With a roar of laughter, the girl began to out of habit, jokingly perform her ballet routine. Expecting to see the reflection of her tall, black haired self in the mirror awkwardly prancing around, the girl was taken aback when the reflection displayed the movements of what looked like a professional ballerina. A surge of excitement coursed through the girl as she rushed through the remaining panels, all which asked her to complete tasks such as laughing, talking, singing, and painting. Not only did she realize all the actions the mirrors were prompting her to complete were aspects of herself she continuously criticized, but she also realized that the reflection showed herself executing said actions far better than she thought possible.

After finishing the final task, the giddy girl skipped to yet another keypad located on the opposite end of the ginormous glass wall. Eager to be granted entry into the glass structure, she was quick to press her thumb against the lit up surface, and was overcome with joy when a small panel opened for her to walk through.

After a couple places, she found herself in a room full of people, an equal mix of those she knew, and those she didn’t. With her heart pounding, the girl scanned the room to make sense of what was before her. The glass structure was still apparent, but people were standing in a circle around her hooked up to what seemed to be various wires. The girl desperately tried to capture the attention of those around her, but soon came to notice that each person was intently peering through contraptions that closely resembled binoculars.

Instantaneously, as if a light switch had been flipped on in her mind, the girl came to understand the purpose of all that was happening to her. After taking a careful glance at the binoculars the strange people were looking through, the girl sprinted at an inhumane speed out of the door she had originally come through to check whether her train of thought was correct. All the puzzle pieces finally came together; the mirrors that she had danced, laughed, talked, sang, and painted in front of were reflections of how other people saw her complete those actions. Dancing, something she believed herself to be mediocre at, was what other people deemed her most remarkable quality.

Hesitantly, the girl crept back into the crowded room trying to process everything that had happened to her throughout the night. Never before had she thought herself to be even remotely talented. All of a sudden, she now grasped hold of the idea that perhaps not everyone she meets focuses on her flaws. While sorting through her thoughts, the girl noticed a blinking light in the center of the dome-shaped room. Questioning whether approaching the light would lead to further insight on the misconceptions of her conscience, she timidly pressed her thumb onto the miniscule keypad. For a brief moment, all was silent. The people surrounding her lifted their heads from their binoculars, and turned to eerily stare. In the blink of an eye, a sharp sound echoed through the room and the glass barrier shattered to the floor.

With a sharp intake of breath, the girl awoke drowning in a puddle of sweat and knotted hair. Tears of both relief and happiness surged down her face as she slowly began to comprehend the fact that maybe she wasn’t a failure after all.

There once was a girl who believed she could.

She believed she could, and so she did, and she realized that the first step to shattering her own glass ceiling was by acknowledging its existence.