When I was doing my gap-year-and-a-half, I became very close with an awesome girl. And yeah, I mean capital AWEsome. The type of girl who never has to pay for coffee because either the cute barista or the costumer behind her swoops in. The type of girl who can't sit on a bus in silence because the surrounding males try their hardest to strike up a conversation. The type of girl who other girls flock to for advice on anything and everything. She is one of those girls who radiates everything you want in your life in every single thing she does. Now imagine how lucky I was that she picked me and we were attached at the hip, right?

Nope.

But not because I don't love her.

This girl, she is a princess. All the princes, towns people, peasants, jesters, and all the people in the kingdom just want to get closer to her. So where does that leave me?

I'm the type of girl who usually has to pay for her own coffee. Once in a while I'll get an, "It's on me," and a wink from the barista. I'm almost always able to sit in silence on the bus unless a super friendly person happens to sit next to me for lack of another seat. People who get to know me know I'm good at giving advice on specific topics, so they come to me when they need it. I have some good qualities that my friends appreciate. I think I'm pretty special, but yeah, in the grand scheme of what we're talking about -- I'm average.

So what does that make me, when the princess and I are getting coffee together? When I'm in the seat next to her on the bus? When I'm chilling on her bed, jamming out with a guitar and a girl comes knocking looking to talk? Who am I?

I'm the dragon. The dragon protects the castle that the princess resides in and protects the princess herself. The dragon doesn't see anything wrong in what its doing--In fact, the dragon believes it is doing a good thing. But does anyone else see it that way? No. The dragon is seen as a nuisance. Standing in the way of everyone who wants the princess's affection.

In the fairytales, everyone tries to slay the evil dragon in order to get to the princess. The dragon is portrayed as this horrible animal who slaughters almost everyone who tries to get through. Well, guess what -- dragons have feelings too.

It stinks to be put in a position where you're being looked at as nothing more than a road block. As something that needs to be slain in order to get to the true prize. It hurts and it started to get to me. I started to see myself as the dragon.

It became detrimental. We can't all be seen as princesses to every rando we pass, but when we see someone that is, we can't help but question why we aren't as well. I'm just a measly dragon. I was forgetting all of the amazing things about myself that I worked so hard for because I was focusing on the quantity of people who weren't noticing them, as opposed to the quality of people who were.

Some people are just naturally more magnetic than other people and that's okay. Just like some are naturally more athletic, or some are naturally more creative. We all have strengths and they all manifest themselves in the ways we allow them to. We can take the beautiful strengths we have and work on them and take advantage of them in a positive way. Who cares if other people recognize it? It's about doing something for yourself, something you can be proud of. And truthfully, the people that matter will recognize it. You don't necessarily need the whole world to know.

That princess that I was so carefully guarding? She laughs in my face when I talk about the princess dragon theory, because she sees my value. To her, I'll always be the princess in the castle with her, not the scaly fire breather chilling by the moat.