Mai thoughts on life

Denmark’s most visited tourist attraction by far and my favourite place in Copenhagen is The Little Mermaid sculpture. At first it seems so small and unimportant, resting there at the water’s edge all alone, surrounded by peace and silence. It looks so sad and forgotten.

Sitting on a rock the Little Mermaid started telling me her lifestory. The story of unrequited love, anguish and disillusionment. The real story, not the Disney version of it.

She looked so delicate and sorrowful talking about how she fell madly in love with a man whom she rescued from the ocean and decided to give up her voice in exchange for a pair of legs. The catch was that she only had limited time to win the love of her Prince so she could transform into a human being and spend her mortal life with him. If she fails to do that, she will dissolve into sea foam.

The Little Mermaid found her Prince, who was captivated by her appearance. But…there’s always a but…but he failed to recognize her. He only remembered being saved by a girl with a magical voice. She coudn’t tell him that she sacrified her voice for him. He fell in love with another woman. Broken hearted she threw herself of a cliff and turned into sea foam.

I sat there long after she ended her story. Observing her. Wanting to hear more. I noticed her tail’s transformation into legs is nearly completed. She is resting there eternally frozen in the moment between what she lost and what she was hoping to gain. Heartbroken and alone. Forever.

Both the story and the sculpture resonated with me. I was ready to give up my ocean and everything that was familiar for dry unknown land just to have a happily ever after with my prince. I also sacrified my voice, even though not in a literal sense. I got my legs just to follow his footsteps instead of making my own path. Am I the real life Little Mermaid? Do I still have time to make it right before dissolving into sea foam?