A Child of the King

The best way to describe Alexandria would be to call her a reluctant princess. She was the youngest child of King Reginald and of the Kings 6 children she was the only girl. Her mother desperately tried to raise her as a lady of court, but she was her father’s daughter first. She was the apple of her fathers eye as well and they would spend many days riding through the forest her sitting before him on his big horse her thick dark hair in a braid running down her back. Even with all of her tomboy ways Alex was painfully shy. She rarely talked in the presence of strangers. She preferred instead roaming through the gardens and orchards behind their estate than learning any of the social graces of court.

When se was 10 years old her mother knew that she would never grow to be a lady in this house full of men. So, as was the custom in their part of the world she arranged for Alex to attend a school for girls. Alex didn’t want to go. She had no desire to become a lady, more than anything else she wanted to stay with her father.

But tradition and her mother’s insistence won out and she went to stay at the most prestigious boarding school in all the land.

She knew right from the first day that she didn’t fit in. All of the other girls seemed more concerned with how they looked than what sort of fish they could find in the stream that ran along the back of the estate. The each chattered almost incessantly about life at court and all the latest gossip. Alex didn’t know what to do or think. She mainly tried to stay out of the way and endured her confinement in that place in silence.

For a while after she arrived the other girls were so in awe to be in the presence of an actually princess that they left her alone. But once they found that she wasn’t going to lash out at them and treat them like her subjects they found it much more fun to teaser her.

“Look at her hands,” they would say, “she has more calluses than the maid”

“Check out her hair, does she even own a comb.”

“Alexandria is way to fine a name for a boy like her, Alex suits her much better.”

“it seems the king has sent one of his sons in a dress and he makes a very ugly princess”

These and other things they would say to her as she walked through the halls and around the grounds.

Alex took it as long as she could then she sent a letter to her mother begging to be brought home. Seeing the abuse being heaped on her daughter the queen immediately sent word to bring Alex home. The king stopped that order, though.

“Let me handle if first, dear, he said,. And if this doesn’t work we can bring her home.

That very night the king road to the school. The next day as the girls were heading to their morning classes he hid in the bushes beside the path. Sure enough as Alex walked by the other girls began to call her names. The king was interested in how she would react. Alex simply ducked her head and hurried past. The king could see a tear in her eye as she walked by.

When classes were over the king was waiting in Alex’s room. She ran to him immediately and hugged him.

“O papa, she said you are coming to take me home!

Actually my Alexandria I am not. He said. I came here to remind the people in this school of who you are, but I see now that I need to remind you of who you are. Have you forgotten my face so quickly? You are not a peasant. You are not a servant. You are the princess of this kingdom. You are my daughter and I love you, but more than that you are the daughter of the king. Hold your head high. When you walk through these halls stand straight and tall. When you hear what these girls are saying, don’t slink away look them in the eye. Remember you are the child of the king.

The king hugged his daughter then and took her by the hand. He then walked around the estate with her hand in hand like that so that everyone could see her. At first Alexandria didn’t know what to think, but as she walked she began to see how the people saw her walking arm in arm with the king. Her back got straighter and her head came up. For the first time she realized who she really was. She was a child of the king.

That is the same that must happen with you. You are a child of the king and as such you must see yourself in a new way.