The contest going on right now is to write a five hundred word short story about yourself, explaining what makes you uniquely you. Enjoy :)
Once Upon A Time is how all good stories start. I don't know how good this will be, but bear with me.
Once Upon A Time, there was a girl. She didn't think she was extraordinary in any way.
By the age of nine, she was on her tenth move, this time across the country rather than across state lines.
Her parents had always fought and never seemed to really love each other, they had been young when they got married and they weren't really ready. They made lots of mistakes.
The girl this story is about was the oldest, and had to care for her younger siblings when Mum and Dad's depression was bad.
This girl was me.
I say was, because, like everyone, I've changed.
By the age of two I knew all my colors, numbers, letters, and could speak fluently. By four I was reading and writing choppily, and by five I wanted to know a little spanish and ASL too.
I worked hard and taught myself. I've always had a passion for learning, so it wasn't too hard to get going with whatever I put my mind too.
For the first, oh, ten years of my life, I had no idea that I was unusual, or that my life was strange. I thought having parents that didn't live together all the time was normal, I thought having to practically raise three other kids at the age of eight, when Mum was too sick to be a mom, was normal, I thought everything about my life was perfectly ordinary.
Turns out, I was wrong.
When I was nine, as I said before, I moved for the last time.
We finally settled down some, I tried making friends and failed, dealt with bullying and depression and social anxiety on my own, because my parents had their own problems and I didn't want to make my mom cry any more than she already did.
At ten I tried to run away - again. Finances were so bad that I thought it would be easier on my parents if they didn't have another mouth to feed. My three sisters and cousin were enough for them to take care of.
Later, when they learned my reasoning, they told me I was wrong about that, that their lives wouldn't be easier without me, but it took a long time for me to believe that, really.
At eleven I still didn't know how to function well in society. I was uncomfortable and unliked, but I had to pretend for my mum, so I smiled and told her I loved all of the many, many friends I was making at church, that everyone was just so kind.
The summer after my twelfth birthday was when everything changed even more, for good and bad. Mum forced me into going to this part-time private school on Thursdays. I thought I would hate it, but the opposite was true.
I finally made friends, and although I definitely cringe when I look back on my first couple years at Polar Star, I love them, too, because I grew and learned so much, and finally discovered my own worth.
I began ballroom dance and won a ribbon for the cha-cha in my first competition. I began acting, and have now been in four Shakespearean plays, with a total amount of lines somewhere near 150, which is a lot for someone with stage fright and anxiety like me. I also took history classes and have graduated with honors each year.
We hosted exchange students from Japan as well, and they were and are incredibly influential. Now, I am a Teen Ambassador for the exchange program, and there is a chance that next year I will be able to go to Japan as a delegate myself.
I try hard and sometimes I still don't do as much as I should, I learn and grow and make many mistakes. I am teaching myself to write and draw, dance and sing, act and teach and help others. I am learning to cope with existential and social anxiety, depression, stress issues and taking on other people's burdens.
Around age twelve I also began having extreme symptoms, and since then I haven't had even one day pass when I don't have a headache, trouble breathing, vertebrae or ribs out of place, aching legs and back, neck and arms, muscles and joints, or something else wrong with me. I've had to drop out of dance, because it was too painful for me to continue. I can't do almost any of the ordinary activities - sports, night games and hikes and such - that my friends do.
I have struggled, I have self-harmed, I've starved myself, I've contemplated suicide, I've tried to run away.
But I have learned and loved, laughed and drawn and painted, danced and acted and sung, wrote as much as I could, I've cooked and taught and helped others, I've taken care of kids and rescued animals. I'm training my own service dog, and I'm training myself.
I may be one of the most awkward, annoying, worthless people on this planet, but I love myself as much as I can.
I am Homeschooled, I am Christian, I am an Actress, Dancer, Singer, Writer, Artist, Sister, Daughter, Friend.
I am The Outlawed Princess.
