Far, far away in a world of extremes, there lives a girl who wanders through life in search of a middle ground and the perfect balance between opposites. The young woman is a walking contradiction, who conservatively rebels established traditions and feels a basic ambivalence toward all. When you feel like you have finally grasped all the aspects of her personality, her antics get your head spinning and you have just lost all sight of who she is. The girl is just a mystery that transcends understanding.

Here is a girl who seems to like strutting her stuff, exuding confidence as she raises her chin up and flashes her steel grin to the world. Nevertheless, she will go home, stare in the mirror, and consider the easiest ways of eliminating her chubby cheeks and the puffy red pimples on her forehead. Then there is the little lady who tries to charm the pants off all the guys, pretending to know what she is doing, when in reality, she's a sour seventeen and never been kissed. To outsiders, she appears assertive and sure of herself, but within the shell, her blood inexplicably runs cold from her blazing insecurities. Why show weakness, she wonders. Since she aspires to be a source of strength for all her friends, she can never let anyone really know how she feels. Love is her one exception to the rule.

Often, you'll see her with her head in the clouds, but don't bother asking her what she's thinking about; you will always get the same answer: The Boy. This raging romantic is perpetually seeking emotional and spiritual fulfillment through platonic, requited love but never seems to attain it. In this particular case, her passion manifests as a double-edged sword; while the love usually puts her in high spirits, melancholy has hit her just as hard, when she finally realized that she can never have The Boy. The irony of it all is that she adores and respects him because she has seen how sensitive, smart, and hopelessly devoted he is to his one and only. She looks longingly into his pale, misty eyes as he explains to her how madly in love with his girlfriend he is. It never seems to bother her, though, because she is grateful enough that she has been able to experience love.

Leave it to her to find the bright side of things. Her identity is characterized by this trademark optimism which, considering her personal idealism, is not completely unfounded. She incessantly engages herself in the quest for perfection, but she also understands her human nature and will settle for second best. In addition, she tends to put ideas, concepts, and people upon pedestals, only to have them come crashing down upon her ego. Despite these recurrent disappointments, the girl relentlessly continues to pursue her impractical goals and fantasize of all that she can never be. Today she has dreams. Tomorrow she knows (or at least hopes) that they will come true.

You may call her foolish, but she prefers to be seen as enlightened, even though she realizes that she is actually blatantly naive. The girl allows her recalcitrant heart and intuition to lead her life beyond the realms of reason and logic into "happily ever after." In essence, she is the metaphorical manic depressive and the paradoxical rose that grew from concrete; you don't try to figure her out because you know you will only become more confused. However, she really does want the world to understand just where she is coming from. Now it is only a matter of whether she will ever know it herself.