Inachevé

Thirty - I AM HERE

Summary: Madison Starling is a multi-pierced, tattoo-covered drug addict. Shiloh Trivett is a smart, sensitive student who struggles with sexual identity. Riley Slater is an unpredictable, social-brain-teaser. Narrated by their college counselor, he tells the vivid stories of these three people who have lives no one would want to read or know about. Yet, as he talks with them, he finds common ground and begins seeing their darkest secrets. And whether the ground is solid or rocky, the counselor must either continue living among their lives, or do what society continues doing to them: turn away...

Started: (idea) October 1, 2014

"Do you know what a box is? 

It's a four walled object that closes together until no light can filter in.  Inside, there's nothing but heavy darkness.  Nothing living inside can see the walls—but they can feel them weighing down on their trembling shoulders.  Not only can the living thing not see, but they also start losing their breath.   And without air, the living thing will die.  And no matter how ugly it gets inside that box; no matter how starved, afraid, or bloodied the living being looks like, the box still looks the same on the outside.

Society is a box.  A colorful box, though.  The peacock demeanor of society's box is both alluring and frightening.  It's alluring because of what's inside.  It's frightening because the walls can shut at any time, and possibly never open.  Everyone has walked into such a box.  Some stay because they believe that once they're inside, that's where they should stay.  And others, who back out of the box before it shuts, only find themselves backing into another box. 

And here's the thing: each box has a label.  Sometimes the label is misleading, other times it's exact.   But whatever the label reads, it can be read from miles and miles away by anyone, anywhere.  The label can be either placed on by the person inside the box, or, outsiders can quickly claim decor before the person inside has a chance.

That's how people view other people.  They put them in judgmental boxes, shut them with fear, and seal them with caution tape.  But as mentioned before, sometimes, it doesn't take other people to package and label the box; sometimes the person inside can do it to themselves.  And that, my friends, is probably the worse parcel of them all because once someone decides to label themselves as a certain person, and market themselves that way, then, when they're judged, the judgment is all the worse.   And that's the type of judgment that leaves the living thing dying inside."  

Those were the words college counselor, James Rawlings, shared with three students on a warm October day in 1994.  Rawlings had a flare for speech and a heart for listening to the wandering and wayward.  He had a doctorate in psychology and an English degree, as well as having been an ex-police officer for five years.  Rawlings never saw himself as a college counselor, but when he applied for the position at West County Community College, he had never felt more at home.

His box story, for many listeners, was confusing and sounded like a bunch of pretty words jumbled together in hopes to get a point across.  But to Madison Starling, Shiloh Trivett, and Riley Slater, it made perfect sense because in their worlds, they all lived in boxes.  One had been shipped one too many times to the wrong owner.  The second one had been mislabeled and strapped with caution tape.  And the other kept kicking at the doors of the box, hoping one day to be left alone by society.

The three students come under Rawlings' guidance and, for a while, their paths seem to straighten.  But as the students' dark secrets rear their ugly heads and one of them becomes a victim to a violent assault, Rawlings is forced to either turn away, or become the hope the students have always needed...

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"Too often we consider race as something only Blacks have, sex orientation as something only gays have, gender as something only women have.  If we don't fall into any of these categories, then we don't have to worry."  - Henry Louis Gates, Jr.