As every morning, when Gardenia woke up, she made her bed, cleaned herself up and prepared to go down to the dining room to have breakfast with her family before going to school. She was only a few months away from finishing high school and her dream was to start a dance and art career at a university in her country, but she did not have the support of her parents. They were businessmen and for many years they had taken the reins of the family business where Gardenia's grandparents had been partners since her youth.

         How to assert her right to decide what she wanted to be and do in her life? That was the thought that she often flitted through her mind.

         ---Don't insist on the same! Your goal is to graduate as a Business Administrator so that you can continue supporting the family business, --- was part of the speech that her father repeated every time she talked about her dreams of being a professional dancer.

         --- But Dad! And where are my dreams?, --- Gardenia expressed annoyance and with her voice cut by the tears that were about to sprout.

         --- Being a dancer is a waste of time, it does not generate any valuable income, you already have a company and your duty is to continue taking care of it when your mother and I retire, in the same way as your grandparents did when they left us in charge of that responsibility. I don't want any more complaints about it, ---the man almost yelled at her, closing the discussion and leaving Gardenia without the strength to say anything else.

         She would come home from school and go directly to her room to do her homework, and to enter her virtual world where video games and digital dance channels were her passion and her way of disconnecting from the reality that she already knew. what awaited him.

         --- "If only I had enough strength to enforce my dreams and not allow them to decide for me", --- she said to herself.

         But she considered herself a weak girl, without character to impose herself and enforce her decisions before her parents, and the rest of her family, all united against her, weakened her even more.

         That Friday, when she got home from class, and already free from homework, she went to her computer where days before she had downloaded a game but she hadn't had time to use it. It was about a group of dancing girls from different musical genres who competed against each other. She found it interesting and she preferred to play it when she had more free time. When she started, she introduced herself, she placed her name, chose a virtual doll and dressed her in her favorite ballet outfit, in a beautiful light blue tone as she always dreamed of seeing herself dressed to perform her dance. As she got more involved in the game, she began to perceive a strange sensation that everything that happened in the game she was experiencing, that it was real.

Source: Pixabay - By temnothorax

         In the game, she established a connection with another dancer who had the same concerns, and limitations to fulfill her dream. For some reason, she began to feel that the strength that she never had to assert her rights to decide what she wanted had taken an unexpected turn and began to gain courage and energy by sharing the same experience with someone. life situation. The hours passed very quickly, the night seized her totally surrendered to that wonderful world of virtual dance, which she did not notice when her mother came in to leave her dinner, she heard him say something that she could not understand or answer, and with the same it was.

         She did not want to stop, she wanted to continue in that game that she made her feel in the world she always dreamed of. She took a break for dinner, her back was to her computer, and when she finished her meal and turned around to continue playing, she only managed to see some hands that came out of the screen and reached out to hold her by the arms until they deposited her in that magical world that a few minutes before he admired from the other side of the screen.

Source: Pixabay
Image edited in PhotoScape

         --- What happened? What is this? How did I get here? ---were the questions Gardenia was asking, surprised at what had just happened.

         --- Don't be scared friend, I felt the same when I arrived and then I just started to live and enjoy my dream. Here I turned it into reality, --- were the words of the girl with whom she had made a connection minutes before.

         --- But I didn't tell my family anything, they're going to worry, ---Gardenia insisted.

         Celeste, her new friend, explained to her what that virtual world of dances was like, and also told her that she could return to her real world whenever she wanted. She wouldn't be there if she didn't feel at ease. And with regard to her parents, she explained that she could write a message to her parents from a personal computer that was a replica of hers and they would see it on the computer screen that was in the room. her.

         Gardenia spent the night thinking about what was now her virtual room, she thought to herself if she was wrong not to talk to her parents about this again and leave like that, just leaving a message, but she knew that they would never allow her to fulfill her dream of no way. She did not understand what was happening to her but she felt that it was the opportunity to become a dancer as she always dreamed of. She got up and sat in front of the computer and wrote:

         “Dear mom and dad, I know you are going to be upset when you read this message but they didn't leave me any other way to fulfill my dream of being a dancer. I am in a very distant world, perhaps in an unknown dimension that I cannot explain nor would you understand, I only know that it is a place where we can all carry out our most beautiful dreams, where we are given the necessary strength and confidence to fight for what is that we want and deserve, because it is our right as beings that we have autonomy to make our own life decisions. Sorry for not talking to you before deciding on this step. If one day they are willing to understand me, and accept what I want for my future, I will go back and continue with my dreams of making a career as a professional dancer.”

I love you, give me your blessing, please.

Gardenia.

         The next morning when Gardenia's mother entered her room and did not find her, she went to the computer and found the message on the screen. An intense scream was heard throughout the house, and the father quickly went up to see what was happening. As he read, courage invaded him and he began to say very harsh things. It took many days for the mother to calm him down and help him accept that they had both been wrong to be so harsh with his daughter. It wasn't fair to cut short her dreams, and now she had decided to leave to fulfill them.

         They admired the strength that she had to make such a decision, although they felt great pain for her absence. Many months had passed since Gardenia had entered that world of virtual dances, she had learned many things, she had good friends who shared her love of ballet. But she also missed her parents, they had never responded to her message. Her computer was always blank when she checked it. Until one morning while she was getting ready to go to her dance class, she heard the sound of a message on her computer, and when she looked up she realized it was from her mother. She felt her heart jump out of her mouth with emotion.

Source: Pixabay - By Alexandra_Koch
Image edited in PhotoScape

         --- Hello daughter! How are you?, --- were the words of greeting from her mother.

         --- Hi Mom! I'm fine, very happy because I was finally able to fulfill my dream, but sad because I didn't want it to be this way, ---the girl replied.

         --- Daughter, although your father does not say anything, I know that he suffers from your absence, his way of seeing things has changed a lot, and both he and I want to apologize for not having thought about your right to decide what you wanted to do in your professional future, and on the contrary, we wanted to impose something on you that you did not want. Please, he comes back and we'll talk here, and I promise that we'll help you start your dance classes at the university, ---the lady expressed to him with great sadness, not knowing if her daughter would accept.

         After a pause of a few minutes, Gardenia excitedly told him:

         --- Thank you mom, of course I want to return. Although everyone here behaved very well with me, I needed the warmth of my home, and to be with my family.

         Like a burst of light illuminating the room, the screen opened and the girl in her ballerina outfit stepped out of it. She looked so beautiful that her mother hugged her to her chest, proud of the courage and strength she had to defend her position. That same morning they went to high school so that Gardenia could catch up on the classes she had missed in those months, and after receiving her degree, she enrolled in one of the best dance universities in the country. Everything learned from her in that virtual world of hers allowed her to advance in her studies and obtain very productive proposals even without having completed her degree.

         That night the theater shone to show a great dancer, someone who dreamed high and came to achieve her dream with tenacity, the stage was covered with stars on all sides, because that was the name of the play with which Gardenia would make her public debut. : “A dancer in the stars”. Because having made her dream come true was for her like touching the stars.

Author: Ana C. Rivero - Venezuela