I liked it quite a bit. I really like the message and don’t let them tell you anything. That’s why I’m an individualist! As far as craft I thought it was good but I think you could have let the prose flow more with symbolism. In music they call it implied notes, you don’t hit a note but play around it and it sounds like you do:

I want sunshine to mean happiness, rain to mean cartoons and hot chocolate. I want that simple pleasure that you live for and work for that gives you that warm tummy and tingling toesies. I want to cry without reserve or shame if I fall off my bike or see Dumbo’s mom rocking him from her caged wagon, or if I get lost on my first solo hike in the neighborhood and am convinced I’ll never find my way home.

I want to be insanely happy for dreams and hopes that my mind doesn’t think can be crushed. I want to confuse dreams with reality and wake up convinced that I can fly. I want lazy afternoons spent ho hum reading in sunny fields with no nagging thoughts of the next day being Monday, preventing me from wondering if Agatha Christie would get her man!

...but that’s just me. I’m going flying now!

Deminizer, you da best. Great advice, as always! And just like that, I’m flying too