Dear class of 2008,
High school is just a part of your life, it isn't your life.
Those are the words of a teacher, whom I befriended years ago. An english teacher, and a coach who taught me that giving up was never an option. I never actually had him as a teacher, but more as a mentor. He taught me that I was special, and what others thought was meaningless, what mattered most was how I felt.
I sit here, with only one day left in high school, and it almost brings me to tears to think that four years of my life have gone by so fast. Four years of drama, laughs, god only knows how many tears, four years of growing up, gone by in the blink of an eye.
I started high school as an emo, goth whiny little fat girl. I ended high school as the speaker at graduation and a member of prom court. It blows me away how people change. It blows my mind how much I've changed. I stopped and looked in the mirror this morning, and I asked myself what about me had really changed. I'm wearing a Johnny Cash t-shirt, shorts from Hot Topic, my ears are gauged, only 14's but they don't have Gucci studs in them, and my hair which used to be platinum blonde, is now black as night. The shape of my body hasn't really changed much either, I'm still very giant like. I asked myself why people liked me, I couldn't really think of any logical reason so I asked my friend Chelsea about it once I got to school and her response was simple,
"Because your you."
I was confused by her answer, and I asked her to elaborate
"All of those popular kids you've been making fun of for years, they are stuck like that because they care to much for what others think. They look up to you because you could care less about what others think."
I was puzzled by her answer, but the way I see it, life is like a staircase. Filled with billions of steps. A step for everyone. That step may be made of gold and diamonds, or it may be made of wood with cracks in it. Regardless it's your step. You can turn it into whatever you want it to be. It's your step, it's your life, make it your own. What those other stairs think of yours doesn't matter. Right now my step is pretty plain, I don't even have a plant on it, but it has me, and despite 18 years of an uphill battle against conformity, I think that makes my step pretty spectacular.
With love, and best wishes
Victor/Victoria
