The holidays give me insomnia. Every year. It never fails.

Chopin: my childhood with my overbearing mother. Little dresses that I abhorred wearing. I used to hate dresses as a child. And the color pink. All girly things. I got a Barbie when I was 7 and I almost threw her away. All I wanted was a bicycle. For two consecutive birthdays I had wished for one. When it finally arrived in all its glory I took off the training wheels and fell over a hundred times everyday until I finally mastered how to ride a bike. Scraped knees were a daily accessory. As well as salting slugs, burning ants, building forts and making LEGO villages with my cousins. I don’t know when I stopped being a tomboy and became a girl. I know I only started liking pink when I got to college. But before then I had already started hi-lighting my hair and teaching myself how to wear make up. I miss being a tomboy. I miss hating dresses.