It was summer! The sun was so bright, it was like a giant yellow ball smiling down at us. Everything felt happy and colorful! My family had just moved from our house in Houston to a farm nearby, and I loved it! It was so much fun to play outside and run around, and I even used my special superpower to make magical rainbows. We had a beautiful stream that flowed like a ribbon through the fields, and a big lake where I could swim! The farm was full of animals, but my favorites were the storks. Their legs were so long and they walked so gracefully! I tried to walk like them, but my little legs just weren't as long.
One day, I was playing with the ducklings in the lake when I saw something amazing! A duck was sitting on a nest full of eggs! I watched as the eggs started to crack and little ducklings hatched, one after another. But one egg, the biggest one of all, stayed closed. The duck looked worried, but she kept sitting on it.
A few days later, I went back to the lake. The duck was gone, but the big egg had cracked! There was a little duckling inside, but it was different from the others! He was bigger, his feathers were a different color, his beak was different, and he just seemed...sad.
"Why are you sad?" I asked him. "You have a whole farm and a beautiful garden to explore!"
"I'm sad because I'm different," he said, his voice wobbly. "All the other ducks laugh at me and make me feel bad."
"Don't listen to them," I said. "I love you! I think you're super cool! Come play with me tomorrow. I have a secret hiding place called Enchanted Castle, it's super fun!"
The next day, I went back to the lake. I looked everywhere, but the duckling wasn't there. I learned he had left to find other friends, but he didn't have any luck. Everywhere he went, the other ducks laughed at him. He had a long and difficult journey. The seasons changed, and he always had to move because he didn't feel welcomed. He only felt comfortable in nature.
I went to play by the lake every day, but I never saw my friend. I even played with my favorite unicorns, imagining them running through the fields with their long, beautiful manes.
Then, spring arrived! It was beautiful, just like summer, and I loved it. After a long journey, the duckling found himself back near the lake where he was born. He was still sad, but he approached the water cautiously, hoping his siblings wouldn't laugh. He looked in the water, like a mirror, and he saw himself. He wasn't an ugly duckling anymore! He was a beautiful swan! That's why he was so different!
One day, I went to play in the lake and I saw him! He was so beautiful! I was so excited to see him! I couldn't believe it was the same duckling I met all those months ago. We played happily together in the water, and I realized being different wasn't wrong, it was just being who you are.
And isn't being different just being who we are?
