Her self-esteem was a like a book. The book was old, with corners tattered by age. Coffee stains and old teardrops decorated the pages. It was obvious from the faded print that it had suffered the sunlight of harsh truths a time or two. The pages were crinkled and slightly warped from being left out in quite a few hailstorms of cruel remarks and the torrid rain of jokes at her expense.

When the librarian picked up the book, a cloud of dust fell. He could tell this was clearly a tome nobody had tried to check out in quite a while. It was no wonder with it sitting forgotten on a high shelf because it didn’t quite fit in with the books in the more popular sections.

The binding was broken in places by years of neglect and misuse but miraculously still held together. A few close nurturing friends had mended the binding a few times before with their precious gifts of love, support and reassurance. They had helped her create a patchwork cover for the book, not perfect but perhaps more interesting than the other books because of its imperfections.

Sitting down at his desk, the librarian opened the old book to take a gaze inside. Amazingly the stories found in there were rich, colorful and unique. He shook his head thinking about the hidden treasures so few are brave enough to seek beneath a less than perfect façade and settled in for an enjoyable evening with a new friend.