Valerie is a beautiful little girl, who is 5 years old.
One day, Valerie goes to a kids festival with her mother.
Valerie's mother ties a beautiful pink balloon around her wrist, so that she doesn't get lost in the crowd.
Valerie's mother ties a pink balloon to her wrist as well, so that Valerie can find her mother in case of an unexpected situation.
Valerie sees a candy shop and her mother notices.
They both are aware of the enormous love that Valerie has towards cotton candy.
Valerie's mother puts on a huge, lovely smile and gets into the candy shop.
Valerie starts dancing and jumping around from happiness.
Suddenly, she hears this weird, loud, scary noise '' BOOOOOMMMMMM!!''.
Valerie looks up, she realized that her balloon popped.
''Oh, it's okay, my mother is buying me cotton candy! The balloon doesn't matter!'', she thinks...
She turns around in laughter to go back.
Oh! Wait, but that's not where the candy shop is.
Valeria keeps on running around, turning around, screaming her mother's name...
She can't spot her mother's pink balloon because the people around her are extremely tall!
''Mommy!? Mommy!? Where are you!?''
Valeria gets more and more scared every other second.
She can't hold it any more, she lost her mommy, she doesn't know what to do.
Tears burst... Valerie is still crying out for her mom.
She is nowhere to be seen, she isn't there.
What is she going to do now?
Suddenly, this girl approached her, ''Hello, what's wrong?''.
Her mother always told Valerie not to talk to strangers.
This girl was a stranger.
She didn't answer, she just sniffed her nose.
''Who did you come here with?'', the girl asked.
Why is this random girl asking Valerie about her mother? What does she want?
The girl stood up and noticed her pink, popped balloon.
''Does your mother have the same balloon?'', she asked.
Valerie was scared, how did the girl know that her mother had the same pink balloon as her?
Valerie didn't answer, she started crying again.
The girl could see that Valerie was scared.
She bent down again and said, ''I am very sorry, I am being so rude. I didn't even introduce myself! My name is Charlotte and I am an artist. What is your name?''
Valerie calms down, maybe every stranger isn't scary and dangerous. This girl seems nice.
''My name is Valerie and I am a princess.'', she says.
She reaches out to Valerie with her hand, ''Nice to meet you princess Valerie.''
Valerie smiles, ''Nice to meet you artist Charlotte.''
''Hmm, I feel like you have a story to tell, is that true?'', Charlotte asks.
''Yes.'', Valerie answers.
''Can I volunteer to be your audience?'', Charlotte asks.
Valerie smiles and begins her story.
''This morning, I woke up very late. I woke up at nine in the morning! I always wake up at seven in the morning to watch power-puff girls! My mother woke me up. She said, ''My princess, I have a surprise for you!'' and she showed me two festival tickets. She told me that we were going to come to this festival today. I was so happy! I ran out of bed and jumped on her, I started to kiss her because I love her so much. We came here. My mother got two balloons; one for me and one for herself. She told me that this will help us to never be separated during the festival. She bought two pink balloons! Pink is my favorite color. When we entered, I saw the cotton candy. My mom knows that cotton candy is my favorite food in the whole wide world! She went inside to buy cotton candy for us. I was so happy so I started singing and dancing. I was laughing so much, I closed my eyes! But, when I opened them, my beautiful pink balloon popped and my mom was gone! I lost my mom! She is the best mom ever, what am I going to do without her!? Look at all of these big people, they ate my mom! I love my mom! She is gone, what am I going to do without my mom!?'', Valerie was about to cry again.
Charlotte grabbed Valerie, '' Valerie, that is one of the most beautiful stories that I have ever heard! I want to ask you a question, did you know that all the princesses in the world are full of love, beautiful and strong, just like you? Princesses always have hope because they are beautiful on the outside and the inside so, we are not going to cry. We are going to get up, be strong and look for your mom together.''
Valerie cries, ''But what if these big people ate my mom!?''.
Charlotte whips Valerie's tears, '' You shouldn't cry because the good news is that it is impossible to eat someone in such a short time!''
''Really!?'', Valerie screams.
Charlotte, ''Yes! Hold my hand, let's go find your beautiful mother!''
Valerie runs towards Charlotte and holds her hand with the biggest smile on her face.
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In the end, Charlotte and Valerie find the mother together. On their way, they get to know many things about each other and Charlotte ends up by becoming Valerie's very close friend.
Returning to reality; I am Valerie, Amina is Charlotte and the mother is the path that I am following in my life. Sometimes you get lost, you have bumps on that path or you have too many directions at once, that's life. That's everybody. I officially met Amina, when I tripped over one of these bumps and fell down. It was around 21:30 pm (one and a half hour before our check-in), I was sitting on the Musala stairs, I was upset, tired and homesick. Amina saw me and said, '' Coffee now, no excuses. I will take you to this football bar, like it or not.''. That made me smile and we went. I talked for about an hour, she listened, she cried, I cried, she gave me advice, we gossiped... We bonded. That conversation wasn't like any other conversation that I've had with anyone before, this sounds cheesy I know but it's true. She literally turned my night from a disaster to something that I'll never forget. I would say that Amina and I began there, at that loud football cafe, right before check- in, with zeleni cay and bijela kava.
This girl now (and always will be) is one of the people that under no absolute condition that I would never separate from. This girl changed the way I see things. This girl made me realize that I'm not alone, that I never will be. This girl helped me. This girl made me happy. This girl loved me. She grabbed me from the place that I fell, made me stand straight and continue my path in no time.
I am lucky to have her, I met her by a coincidence. I became her adopted local. I love her. She is special.