Am I a Princess?

I signed up for the Princess 1/2 Marathon thinking that because it was a Disney event it would be fabulous, and who wouldn't want to go to Florida in March. When I signed up for the race, I had to pick my favorite princess and my four choices were Snow White, Cinderella, Sleeping Beauty, and Belle. Without any thought, I picked Sleeping Beauty because I like the fairies in the movie. I actually forgot all about that choice until I picked up my race packet and saw my pink Sleeping Beauty race bib with Princess AJ written on it. I'll admit, I was a little disappointed that it was pink, but no worries, its just a race bib.

Once again, I didn't really give this any more thought until the morning of the race. As I was waiting around for the race to start, I was noticing all of the women's (and a few men) bibs and started wondering why they picked the princesses they picked. Were they like me and just picked one without much thought or were they truly attached to their princesses? These thoughts continued as I was running and noticing all of the princess trivia out on the course. I do actually know my princess trivia, so it was kinda fun until I started listening to the "princesses" around me. Yeah, these women were kinda snotty.

Because I'm a thinker with a completely overactive brain, I started thinking about each of the Disney princesses and where I fit in to all of this. I asked myself, "Am I a princess?" and "Do I want to be a princess?"

I thought about Cinderella, who basically got lucking finding her prince after a lonely life being a cleaning lady. I don't like to clean or be a servant and I also don't like relying on others (ie. fairy godmothers) to make my dreams come true. I'm pretty sure that you're supposed to make your own dreams come true.

I thought about Snow White and decided I'm not at all like her because I have trust and space issues, and I'm actually kinda smart. I grew up in the 80s and learned not to take food from strangers because they could have injected it with some awful drug. Also, I'm fairly certain that picking up after and cleaning for 7 short men isn't my cup of tea. I don't handle the Napoleonic complex very well at all. Oh, and once again, she had to wait around for someone to come along and rescue her after she made a dumb choice.

I thought about Aurora from Sleeping Beauty and realized that she was a totally passive princess who basically slept her life away. I have trouble sleeping through the night, let alone sleeping long enough for a briar patch to grow over my home. Also, she allowed her life to be controlled by others which so doesn't work for me.

I thought about Belle and realized that she was super intelligent and well-read. Okay, I love to read, so maybe we have something in common. She does burst into song spontaneously though and seemed okay talking to teapots and candlesticks. I only sing in my car and I'm way to practical to talk to household items. Also, I'm not sure if I'm very kind, and Belle is totally kind, so... Yeah, not a match there.

I continued this train of thought for awhile and worked on coming up with a princess I actually admired and could relate to. I finally came up with Mulan, who is not a princess at all. She's totally independent and proactive. She's not afraid to go after what she wants in life and to stand up for what she feels is right. She's a little (or alot) clumsy and awkward around guys. She's smart and intuitive. She's a great problem solver. Oh, she loves animals. Yep, I can totally relate to Mulan. So, I had my Disney princess.

What's kind of funny about this is when Katie and I were driving back to the condo after the race, I was telling her about my thoughts about wondering which Disney princess am I most like. Before I could tell her who I came up with, she said, "AJ, you're totally like Mulan!" I was totally surprised that she said that, but also thought it was cool and funny.

So, am I a princess? Not so much. In fact I'm probably a little anti-princess, but I am glad that I found my Disney heroine and that next time I do the race and have to pick a princess, I'll be able to do it with no thought at all.