Once upon a time, there was a little girl who just wanted to explore. At first, she could really only explore a very small area, her crib, and she was very familiar with all the soft corners of her little world. She often  observed the room about her, and had quite long talks with the friends who lived in the room with her. Some were on the nearby battered old dresser, and some were in the chest of toys that had held many previous generations of toys, and some hung upon the walls and kept watch over her as she slept at night.

As she got older, the girl began to explore the rest of the room, and then the whole house, learning all its nooks and crannies and wonderful hiding spots where she could tell her secrets to her best friend, the little stuffed blue-grey elephant who followed her everywhere. Eventually the girl got Big Enough to explore Outside. Outside included places like The Park and The Zoo and the remote and fantastical location called Disneyland. It also included places like School and The Doctor’s Office, and these the girl tolerated because her mother told her she must, although really she liked School because she could learn about all the Other Places she would be able to explore when she was Big Enough.

And so it came to pass that one day the girl rose from her bed and realised she was a Grown-Up, and that she had finished all her School and had done All The Things her mother said she ought to do. Now she was Old Enough to go explore the Whole World and see all the gardens and butterflies, and swim in all the seas and see all the bright fish, and sample all the tastiest foods and sweetest desserts from all the Other Places she had learned about. And so she did, and she wrote all her experiences down in a book and sold it, and kept living her life. And one day, many years later, her book made its way into the hands of another little girl who just wanted to explore.