Once upon a time, a baby was born who shone and sparkled and gave off a bright, brilliant light from her body. [[It was very unusual.|Next 1]]As the infant grew into a child, her light grew stronger. People were delighted by her unique power, and she was often told that she was gifted and special. [[She grew up with a sense that she was different.|Next2]]But as the child entered adulthood, things started to change. Her light was so strong that wherever she went, she drove away darkness - but she also learned that many people wanted certain things to stay in the dark. She didn't know what to do. Should she [[try to change|Change]] or [[keep shining her light|Stay The Same]]?The young woman decided it wasn't worth it to keep shining her light if nobody wanted to see the things it exposed. She decided she could [[hide her light|Lampshade Path 1]] or [[learn to turn it off|Turn It Down Path 1]].She decided it wasn't worth it to try to change who she was. After all, hadn't everyone made a big fuss about how special she was when she was younger? Surely there had to be some reason why she was born so sparkly and shiny. She decided that since her light was making people uncomfortable, she could either [[try to find a way to use it to bring comfort to people|Stay the same path 2a]], or use it to [[deliberately cause discomfort|Stay the same path 2b]].Every day the young woman dressed in long sleeves and skirts that covered her legs, even when it was hot. She covered her head with a lampshade that she had specially designed to block out the light that came from her face. As she grew older, she had to make decisions about how to live her life. Should she [[play it safe, in order to not risk exposing her light|Lampshade path 2a]] or [[take risks anyway|Lampshade path 2b]]?She decided she could try to turn down her light - maybe she could make it [[shine less brightly|Turn it down path 2a]], or maybe, just maybe, she could learn to [[turn it off entirely|Turn it down path 2b]].She decided to live as cautiously as possible. She never put herself in situations where her lampshade might have to come off. She became isolated from other people, and was lonely. Every night, she came home from work, went into the bathroom and shut the door. There, she would take off her lampshade, get undressed, and examine herself in the mirror, trying to find what was so ugly about her light that nobody wanted to see it. She never understood. The End.She decided that just because she had to keep her light hidden didn't mean she was going to live her life any differently than how she wanted to. Although the lampshade kept people at arms length - many of them wondered what she could be hiding underneath it - she tried to fill her life with adventure and ambition. For example, she enjoyed taking sailing classes, and soon became an accomplished sailor. [[One day, she took a trip on her boat.|Lampshade path 2c]]The sun was beaming down on her, and even though she was hot in her lampshade, she didn't mind, because she loved sailing. Out in the water, she noticed a seal splashing and playing. It looked so happy and content, and the sun shining off its fur made her feel at home. She was so distracted that she didn't notice the boom swinging around until it hit her in the back. She managed to steady herself, but the force of the blow knocked her lampshade off her head and into the water. [[She anchored her ship, changed into a bathing suit and dove into the water to look for her lampshade.|Lampshade path 2d]]She dove as deep as she could and shone her light as far as she could into the water, looking for her lampshade, but she never found it. It was gone. When she got back to land, she looked for a replacement lampshade, but nothing seemed to fit right. She'd gotten used to her lampshade, and all the lampshades she tried on were too small, or they made it too hard to see, or they were ugly. Should she [[compromise and wear something she wasn't comfortable with|Lampshade path 2e]] or [[take this as an opportunity to forgo the lampshade for the first time in years|Lampshade path 2f]]?She decided it was better to wear something she wasn't comfortable with than start exposing her light to the world now. She became less and less adventurous. [[She stopped sailing.|Lampshade path 2a]]She thought about the seal that she'd seen swimming in the ocean and how happy it had seemed to be so shiny and sparky. She started to feel angry that she'd spent so long hiding her light. She decided not to wear a lampshade ever again. [[It took some adjusting at first.|Lampshade path 2g]]Not everyone understood her decision to stop wearing the lampshade. Her family was confused. Her boss at her job said it was making her co-workers uncomfortable, and she was fired. But she didn't mind. She found another job eventually, and she never gave up sailing. She never learned to completely control her light, and sometimes it still bothered people, but if anyone ever said anything to her, she just thought about the seal shining in the water that day when she lost her lampshade, and it seemed okay. The End.With great effort, she learned that she could, in fact, exert some level of control over the intensity of her light. She never learned to turn it off completely, but eventually controlling it got easier and easier, until she could do it almost subconsciously. She discovered that if she maintained a gentle glow, it was enough to comfort people but not intimidate them. People became drawn to her and she was surrounded by friends. Sometimes when people needed things illuminated, they even came to her specifically and asked her to turn up their light for them. It took a lot of effort and growth to learn to control her light, but eventually she decided that it was worth it to make her light useful to others. The End.At first, she thought turning it down would be enough. But it took a lot of effort to control the degree and intensity of her light, and sometimes people still looked at her funny. She began to [[search her body for the plug that would turn off her light for good.|Turn it down path 2c]]One day, while she was showering, she discovered it - it was a small plug on her scalp, covered by her hair. She hesitated. She'd spent most of her adult life struggling with the fact that her light made some people uncomfortable, but did she really want to [[turn it off forever|Turn it down path 2e]]? Or was it worth finding [[another way|Turn it down path 2f]]?She only hesitated for a moment before she gripped the plug firmly and pulled it out. She was immediately plunged into darkness. At first she laughed with relief. Now she could just [[be a normal person|Turn it down path 2g]]!She sat down and thought about it. She thought about it for hours. The more she thought about the possibility of turning off her light the more she hesitated. She [[thought back to the beginning of her life|Start]], hoping to find answers.Getting used to normal life was an adjustment. What surprised the young woman the most was the fact that people who had previously shunned her for her light now expressed disappointment that she wasn't sparkly and shiny anymore. Maybe there was no pleasing people, she thought bitterly. She wanted to go back to being shiny, but in her moment of certainty, she had thrown the plug away. Sometimes she thought back to her early childhood, before people started to judge her for her light. She thought about how everyone had said she was so special and unique, destined for great things. Although she learned to live without her light, she wished she hadn't turned it off. It had been an integral part of who she was, and without it she always wondered if she was truly whole. The End. She found herself seeking out darkness - not out of spite, but to search for people who were in need of light. On her journeys, she often disturbed people who did not want light shed on them or the things they did. But she also met people who were lost in the darkness and needed help, and was able to [[lead them back to the world|Stay the same path 2c]]. She decided if people were so uncomfortable with her light, she might as well go all the way. She began seeking out situations where she knew light was unwanted. Sometimes she did good this way, by exposing peoples' dishonesty and hurtful practices. But other times, she ended up hurting people by exposing things that they were hiding for good reasons. She told herself it didn't matter, because she was only being herself. But sometimes she wondered if it was worth [[learning to control her light|Turn it down path 2a]], or if she should [[keep disturbing people who didn't want her light around|Stay the same path 2e]].She became known among these people as a kind of savior, and people started to seek her out for help when they or their loved ones became lost in the dark. Because her goal was ultimately to provide comfort to those who needed it, she became gifted at handling the negative responses people sometimes had to her light. It no longer bothered her that some people did not want to see her light, because she knew that for others, it was important for her to shine as brightly as possible. She felt like she had found her calling and her place in the world. The End.Ultimately, although she still had misgivings, she decided to stick with the path she had chosen. Sometimes her refusal to tone down her light or redirect it elsewhere drove people away. Some people thought that she was callous and didn't care who she hurt. But other people appreciated that she went out of her way to expose the things that some people didn't want seen. She became something of a controversial figure in her community. Sometimes she grew tired of conflict and [[considered using her light in a different way|Stay the same path 2a]]. But other times she [[felt she was on the right path for her|Stay the same path 2f]].As time went on, she learned to bother herself less and less with what other people thought of her. Some people loved her for this, and other people despised her. There seemed to be very little in between, but she didn't care. As she got older, she became well known for being an exposer of secrets. People did not come to her with their problems, but they came to her when they wanted things brought to light, and that was fine with her. She knew in her heart of hearts that anything other than this would be a compromise she wasn't comfortable with, and in knowing that about herself, she was content. The End.