In “The Walls Around Me” by “Allie,” I felt upset that this girl was trapped within herself. At the beginning of the article, she describes feeling “walled in” her entire life. She wasn’t happy with who she was. As her story continues, it begins to get better. She talks about breaking down the walls that isolate her. She tells herself, “It’s okay. You’re not wrong. You’re not an awful person. Don’t beat yourself up.”
She builds up her confidence. She wants to tell her parents that she is gay but doesn’t know how. She realizes that this will knock down the biggest wall of all. She finally goes up to her father and says the magic words: “Dad, I think I’m gay,” which lifts a huge weight from her shoulders. Then she writes, “but you know, I think they were never there in the first place. I just needed to let myself say it’s okay.”
I can relate to Allie in so many ways. Sometimes I put myself down over little things that others wouldn’t care about. I need to learn to tell myself that I’m okay and that everything is going to be okay, the way Allie did. Maybe then I will realize that her saying “Life’s so much easier if you let yourself be okay” is true.