All My Love, Anna

                I know that the life of a farm girl is not usually one of importance or even an eventful one. My sister grew up and married a shepherd. My brother ignored numerous marriage offers and set out to travel the seas as a sailor under the name of the king. I, the youngest, worked the farm with my father. I could have married any of the boys in the village of Sisk, but I dreamt of a job in the palace. To work in the palace a maid must be educated, so in the evenings Mama and Papa taught me grammar, literature, mathematics, and politics. There was no formal schooling for the villagers, only the nobles. That is why our soldiers are so uneducated—they are mostly young men recruited from my village, which sits outside the palace walls.                 Sisk is a small, but honorable village in which to live in. It sits right outside the main palace in Eurisa, my homeland. Many of the nation’s bravest warriors such as Horace the Great were born in my tiny village. By the time of my sixteenth birthday, Papa had received thirty marriage offers for me. My sister, Susanna, had only received half as many. Big brother Kenneth had received almost as many as I. My brother was devastatingly handsome, but he was unaware, which my friends said made him even more charming. Kenneth was a restless soul and craved adventure. That is why he joined the king’s navy and became a sailor. I am not as restless. I just crave more than farm life. Is that too selfish? Am I ungrateful?