Sleeping Beauty’s Dreams

People say Sleeping Beauty dreamed of her prince in the hundred years she slept.

But that’s not true, not in the least.

She dreamt of a world where she needed no prince to wake her, where she could wake herself.

Where she was as valuable as any man, not for her beauty but for her brain.

Where she had a choice in who to love, and who to be.

And honestly, whether she lived at all.

For Sleeping Beauty, true love was but a fantasy.

She didn’t believe she needed it.

Because she didn’t.

Her own love for herself was stronger than any prince’s.

But she still waited, for that was what she was taught to do.

She was never taught that loving herself was enough.

She was always taught that she needed a prince to love her.

She was taught she was nothing more than a pretty face.

Nobody ever told her what a miracle she was.

They claimed that everything that made her who she was came from the fairies.

But did the fairies ever offer her protection?

No, she had to learn to protect herself.

In a world where men rule, a woman with a mind is no miracle, but a curse.

But Sleeping Beauty turned it into a blessing.

She taught herself to fight with both sword and wit.

To never give up, no matter how hard the fight.

And that’s how, after a hundred years had passed, and the prince who claimed he loved her had long since turned to other things, she survived.