This is an entry to @chocolatecharlotte ’s writing contest! Photo and story by me }][{ But It Was Still Beautiful }][{ On an island far off the coast of Europe was a small island. The weather was almost always fair here. Palm trees grew tall. Rain came in pleasant showers. The perfume of flowers was almost always present. Still, Natalia was not content. Generation after generation of her family had lived there. She knew the island inside out. There was nothing interesting about it. “Stay,” her mother said to her. “It’s a good island. The rest of the world is cruel. You’ll never get farther than Europe anyway. Everywhere is too far and too hard to travel through.” Hard. Why did hard sound so much better than the island? Maybe because it sounded interesting. Natalia walked along the beach. Even the flowery perfume of the island seemed boring to her. She looked to the horizon, knowing that somewhere out there was Europe. She admired the sailors that sailed to and from the continent. She wanted to be one. Suddenly Natalia tripped and slid down a sand dune. She found herself face-to-face with a sea turtle. The sea turtle stared at her, then turned and crawled back to the ocean. Natalia followed it. The sea turtle slipped back into the waves, but Natalia caught sight of something else. A shiny shell was sitting in the sand at her feet. She bent down to pick it up. To her surprise, it jumped and scuttled after the sea turtle. Natalie laughed and followed it, too. Not long after she had lost the sea turtle, she came across a tide pool. The sea urchins and sea stars looked more pretty and interesting than they ever had before. Natalia stuck her hand under the water and lifted up a sea star. To her astonishment, she found that it had intricate patterns on it. How had she never noticed? She picked up a sea urchin. It, too, seemed a lot prettier than Natalia had been expecting. Eventually, Natalia made her way back home. As she walked back along the beach, the sun started setting over the ocean. She gazed out over the water for a long time. The sky turned shades of pink and purple and orange and yellow. Some of the sunset colors rubbed off onto the blue ocean waves. Natalia thought to herself. Maybe hard things seem more fun and interesting than a beach could ever be. Still, Natalia found herself liking the island. Maybe it wasn’t interesting like Natalia wanted, but it was still beautiful. She sat down in the sand to admire the sunset until it was gone. Then, she watched the stars come out. Beautiful. Yes, beautiful. For the first time, Natalia didn’t want to leave the island.
