Meredith Ives

The Dollhouse

As a young child trying to discover the mysterious answers to difficult questions, I came to a conclusion to at least one of them. Why do certain things occur in our lives? I didn’t think I had control over anything in my life, and figured someone else did. Who though? Now, being a very young little girl, and like most little girls, I had a dollhouse. And when playing with it, certain thoughts entered my mind as of who. I controlled the lives of the people in the dollhouse, so somewhere in the world is there a little girl with millions of dollhouses controlling our lives? Immediately I assured myself that it couldn’t be, and dismissed the idea entirely, going on with my life. But over the years, that thought has emerged from the depth of my memories, and I still wonder if it could be true, although I know my assumption was completely absurd. Now, some years later, that childhood thought has a new meaning to me, and I think I do know who does control us, and we let them.

The people that control our lives take away our individuality. Individuality. What does that word mean? To some, it is just a word, a simple definition that they use to describe others (often in the negative form), but never themselves. To others, they live the word individuality and know its true definition. Who controls our lives? Those we let. Everybody, no matter what gender, race, or religion, that has gotten us to become followers, is the little girl, and the follower is the person confined in the dollhouse, with a closed door. Whether it was a friend who tells us what to do or a parent reliving their past through us, we obediently follow, like a trained dog. And once it has been decided to follow, that seven-syllable word that should mean so much to us is lost. Someone once said, “you define yourself; others do not define you.”

Why is being an individual so important? If we follow others, we are no longer ourselves, so who are we? That is a complicated question, but roughly we are just a copy of those we follow, whom may at the moment may be called “leaders”. And if it is thought that a life by following others is better than a life of individuality, I disagree, because it isn’t exactly a life that can be claimed. Being an individual means you are you, and if you don’t like yourself, then YOU do something about it. If the fear of being different exists, then I have some news. No matter what you do, you are always going to be different, and you also have a choice. You can either accept this fact, or become a great scientist and clone yourself. If I still have not convinced you to become an individual, then I have one question to ask. What are you going to do when the “leader” is no longer there? Life can change in a second, so if the person you depend on for decisions is no longer there for you, what are you going to do? Find another person to follow? Is that really the way you want to live your life, following person after person? What kind of life is that?

Do you believe that your life is better than it was before you had this person to follow? I can guarantee that there will be one person that won’t. Being the exact replica of someone else becomes excessively annoying at times. If you think that you can handle those that dislike you because you are a follower, then I am truly saddened, but not sorry. Being a follower is much like the people in the dollhouse, they depend on the little girl to make decisions for them and control their lives because they cannot live on their own. The difference is that the people have no choice. I am not sorry for those that are followers because it is their choice.

I realize that I do have control over my life and even did when I was younger and playing with my dollhouse. And just like the followers, I have a choice, and I have decided to be Meredith Ives, and there is no one else I would rather be. Open the door to the dollhouse.