I became famous as a war ‘hero’. A young idealist, I went along with what my elders said, I went to fight in the big war. I was a middling fighter, I was braver than some but yella’ when others stood strong in the storm.

And then, in some strange turn of events, my likeness became viral. People remarked to themselves, ‘If a little girl can do this, what can YOU do?’

I never quite understood the appeal. Either I approached it from the angle of admiring my courage, which I never felt I possessed in the first place, or I approached it from an angle of self-deprecation. My ‘accomplishments’ were nothing for an adult, but monumentous for a child. Shouldn’t you feel encouraged to do at least as much?

“Trrask of the first Thunder”. People knew my face but nothing else. My fame but nothing of my fortune.

I hope and pray that someday, somewhere, people will remember me for more than the day I couldn’t count how many soldiers I had killed.