...that's how you get to Neverland. Also known as my life. At 26, I look around and see people my age getting married, buying houses, and looking for jobs that offer benefits. They're doing all those grown-up things you're supposed to do as you get older. But who made those rules? Who said that to live a happy life I need to buy my own house and trade in my monthly rental fee for a mortgage? Who said I need to find some man to marry when the divorce rate of our generation is 50%? Who said I need to get a career and work 40 hours a week at a regular 9-5 job? I think I'd rather stay in Neverland with my own set of Lost Boys, pirates, and fairies. I can't complain about my life when I have succeeded in surrounding myself with people who would most certainly be my happy thought if Peter Pan sprinkled fairy dust on my head.
With no houses to buy in Neverland, you find yourself living it up in your own tree house, or perhaps your own pirate ship. Even Captain Hook wasn't paying a mortgage for the Jolly Roger. When you're looking for a mate, your fairy friends are quick to help you be picky about your choice and will help test your potential mate to see if they are worthy. Your job in Neverland consists of helping the tourists see the sights of your lovely land, like Pixie Hollow and the Redskins villiage. Everything is just so darn easy for a Neverlander. Or is it?
There are of course drawbacks to living in Neverland. Those "Lost Boys" are just that...lost. It causes a dilemma if you are a mermaid looking for someone to share your rock with in Mermaid Lagoon. Or if you're an indian princess like Tiger Lily who likes the all-time bad boy Peter Pan, you find yourself always on the edges of being a priority to the leader of the pack. Or maybe you're like Tinkerbell, the fairy in love with her best friend, but she just doesn't seem to measure up to his height. Most of all, it can just get downright lonely in Neverland. While the Redskins are fighting the pirates and the Lost Boys are making mischief with the fairies, you're just a mermaid on a rock flopping your tail waiting for Peter Pan to notice that your rock is big enough for two. Of course you'd be attracted to the Pan. Peter is the smartest of all the Neverlanders because he somehow figured out how to visit the real world but retreat back to Neverland once he tires of adult life.
Are we all holding the map to Neverland, but refusing to use it? Why is it that some people reach a certain age and forget their happy thoughts? I don't think I'm so crazy to not want to grow up & not remember how to live a carefree life. But I do wonder sometimes if I'm just a Lost Girl not realizing that it's time to grow up. Oh, well. For now, I think I'll take some of that fairy dust and fly away to Baltimore for the weekend. ;)
"So come with me, where dreams are born, and time is never planned. Just think of happy things, and your heart will fly on wings, forever, in Never Never Land!" - from "Peter Pan" by J.M. Barrie
~LDW
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