When I read “Bad Is the New Black” by Anna Vernon, the first thing I realized was I am not alone. The author is an outsider just like me. She keeps to herself and doesn't really have any friends. She is shunned because she is responsible and wants to be successful in life.

This piece caught my attention because it sounds just like me, aside from the part about not eating red meat – I love hamburgers. I read this piece and sat there, silent, for a minute. I thought, I know the feelings that led her to write this. I wrote a piece just three weeks ago in the same style. She took her feelings and imbued the words with them. You can feel her emotions as you read. The hollow space where friends belong, the sadness. The feeling that you are alone in the rain.