“Okay class… We are all going to write a personal essay. It must be true, but can be embellished. Write something that has a moral, a lesson you learned, or even what changed you…” the teacher bellowed, her voice trailed off into the microphone as the silent students sat at their seats staring up to the teacher, all emotionless. She strolled down the aisle littered with backpacks and loose papers. The high-heeled boots clacked, her frilly, navy blue dress glided past, whipped her dark chestnut hair, and her hazel eyes gazed upon the mass of students, beaming with optimism. And I just sat there, thinking and remembering, a flood of memories. Just the three simple words, “what changed you”, seemed to echo in my head. All I remembered was it all started from last year…

A perfect morning. The sun shining brightly above me in the clear blue sky, the faint smell of pine trees, and a cool breeze greeted me and made me shiver, but I didn’t care about any that. Sigh. Just another school day, I thought as I stood behind the door leading to a classroom filled with chatty girls and lazy boys. “How to ruin a perfectly good day? By doing what I always do,” I mumbled, shrugging, tired of thinking nothing in my life would ever change. It didn’t matter if anyone was around listening me since I was the only one standing on the desolate campus. I put up a facade so I would not disclose my true feelings I had for those people, just the thought made me shudder, and felt a smirk crawling up my face. So, I drew a deep breath and swung the door wide open so all eyes were on me, and the room fell silent.
“Good morning everyone!” I exclaimed while cocking my head to one side wearing a bright, flashy smile. Was that enough? I thought, Of course it was. I scoffed looking at the curious eyes staring back. And that was how each day began in this bleak world.

Well, they maybe the ones I disliked, but I loathed how my life was itself. I had no say to my decisions, since my parents always chose them. I was a misfit, stuck in a classroom with cheery, preppy girls. But I had to deal with my own problems since no one would understand, since I can’t rely on anyone anyway.

My only retreat in this life, draining school from the overload of homework from school, to my parents beating me to study everything from school to the SAT’s even though I was not in high school yet was reading books. I didn’t know how books could make an impact on a person’s life, until now.

Some background about me, my bad habit: buying things on impulse. Then, I laid on my bed, wrapped up like a cocoon with my blanket, staring at the book in my hand named Gamer Girl by Mari Mancusi. It seemed that the title was interesting enough, I rolled my eyes to one side and sighed again. As I opened the book I didn’t know that I was opening up a new path to my life. As the pages flew by, so did the days at school.

When I opened Gamer Girl, the story exploded inside my mind, I couldn’t stop reading. I found myself wide-eyed when I looked at the clock near my bed flashed in red L.E.D. light 1:17 A.M. and I almost made me flip myself onto my rugged carpet floor. Though my heart did skip a beat and my eyes were stinging, I couldn’t help but understand Maddy Starr’s character in Gamer Girl, she sounded just like me, but in high school! The same thinking of the other people, love to read, and would kill for some decent people in school to hang out with. I giggled when I tried to imagine what would happen if Maddy was a real person? We would be totally best friends! I kept grinning and trailed off to sleep.

I had already noticed that most of the students didn’t really care about anyone else at school other than their friends, they denied any presence of strict teachers, and ignore any homework that seemed “too difficult” for them. And finished Gamer Girl, content with how it ended. Maddy found a person who liked her the way she was and won’t change to who they were not, and continued her passion to draw, read, and met new people who had the same interests as her.

Since I finished Gamer Girl by Mari Mancusi, I had met friends that had the same interests as me, read a ton more books, and knew all the good and bad about people at school. Also I knew all the emotions, I knew, seen, heard, and read. All from bitter anger, sweet retreat, dark loneliness, bright happiness, explosive hatred, gloomy sadness, and all the other emotions in between. I wasn’t the same as before, since I am almost like Maddy, now. I am an independent person, a very unique individual that no one can change because of my stubbornness, and I would like to see someone try. Though, my personality is one of a kind, I am adding some color to this black-and-white world and turning it into a rainbow portrait.