Princesses.

When I was eight years old I learned an important lesson.

One of my mother's friends was over to our house. She leaned down to see what I was drawing.

"What's that?" She asked.

"The castle where I'm going to live when I grow up," I said.

"What are you going to do in this castle when you grow up?" She asked.

"I'm going to be a princess," I said.

"I'm not sure fairy tale princess is a realistic goal dear," she said.

"Maybe not, but that's what I want to be," I said.

"What do you think it is princesses do all day?" She asked.

"Princess stuff, Like in the stories," I said.

"Which stories?"

"Sleeping beauty, the Chronicles of Narnia, you know," I said.

"You really think that's a good plan? Going around getting in trouble, waiting for some handsome boy to save you?" She asked.

"No no no, I'm going to turn into a dragon, breathe fire, fly through the air. Have a magic mirror, turn everyone who makes me angry into stone, you know, Princess stuff," I replied, quite patiently.

"Luna, those are the villains in those stories," she said.

"Princesses," I said very slowly this time.

The lesson? You need to understand what people actually mean, what value they assign to a word before forming an opinion about their goals. That snark is a source of infinite joy to my dark little heart.