Castlewellan

While I'm not spending every moment of my stay in Northern Ireland traipsing around castles as an American abroad I do feel fortunate to have visited several, not that I have any dreams of being a princess (or even called one as a pet term). Despite being a categorical nerd growing up who definitely spent more hours locked in her bedroom with a book rather than getting the recommended amount of exercise or vitamin d and while I enjoyed fantasy novels the best where castles and princesses made frequent appearances, the term princess is still the antithesis of everything I desire to be. Whenever I admired a female protagonist she was always the sword swinging, dragon chasing, adventuring type character and if she had an nobility she usually tried to escape her title and privilege. Despite all the swashbuckling princesses I read about when I hear the term I still picture sparkly pink pillows with feather trims, which while not inherently villainous in nature it's counter to how I wish I was. Even today my preferred protagonist can be male or female, noble or poor, skilled or scraping by, but they must get outside of stone walls and battle in something besides wits...So, now as I visit castles and conjure up fictitious stories in my head about the characters who could emerge from within, I don't spend a single moment desiring to be the princess in a tower.