Little Miss Sunshine.

New Year's always lends time to reflect on our lives, whether we like it or not.

For a long time, reflecting on past versions of myself has been hard, and I can't help but feel embarrassed of her. It's common and everyone goes through it but that doesn’t reassure me, and it provides no comfort.

The biggest cure to this problem was the film 'Little Miss Sunshine'. If you're unfamiliar with the movie, it has two viewpoints: Olive's, a child who feels passionately about her dream of becoming a star in a pageant, and her family's (the Hoovers), who lack that hopefulness which one can only find in children. I am transported back to my childhood when I watch the adults both navigate difficult times and hide them from Olive, to keep her in her rose-tinted bubble. It asked me to think of my younger self as if she were Olive - would I treat Olive like I treat the memory of her?

On New Year's Eve, I wrote a poem about a little girl I saw - she looked like she was plucked out of the 2000s. I pictured her as a regular Olive Hoover, and it reminded me that who I was in 2006 is deserved of my kindness.

Little Miss Sunshine

Today I saw Little Miss Sunshine.

Sparkled headband in her hair,

she watched and climbed,

in a dreamland

magnified by her thick-lensed glasses,

and minute meditations

on imaginations concerning 

everything a girl of seven can have.

Not yet bruised by embarrassment, 

she is calm, at the edge of

constant discoveries.

Grown-up Sunshines are pulled

back to their warm glowing girl memories

as she looks up, head cocked,

lucidly marvelling.