Lego Land | Teen Ink

Lego Land

March 30, 2017
By jannice31 BRONZE, Menlo Park, California
jannice31 BRONZE, Menlo Park, California
2 articles 0 photos 0 comments

One day I was in Legoland, California, the place where people think it's colorful, playful, and where kids roam around with smiles and enthusiasm. Well in reality it's colorful and playful, but there is screaming, crying children, you see parents getting mad and stressed, but at the end everyone is happy… sort of. This isn't a fairy tale it's reality and in reality there is sexist, homophobic, and racist people. Sometimes those people hide it, sometimes they don't. You can be hurt by some of those people too, just like I was.

 

It was a sunny day, my friends were happy that I dragged them along with me. It was our first time in Legoland, so we didn't know what to expect. The people that went were my brother, his wife, my nephew and my three friends, two boys and one girl. My friends and I went on our own path because we wanted to explore the park without a little kid around. We were going to meet my brother at the entrance at 7pm. I was enjoying my day with my friends, the sun was out and we were happy to be there. I was wearing my Ariana Grande sweater that was white and in black font it said, ¨I give zero f**** and I got zero chill in me,¨ that I got a week before. 
It was in the middle of the day we were tired of walking for hours but excited to be there as well. Me and my friends were planning to go on our last ride of the day, which was the Ninjago ride that was a motion game. We walked to the line, and in front of us was a white lady with casual wear. She had wrinkles all over her face, she was blonde with blue beady eyes that stared at me. Her stare was so cold I felt a shiver running up my spine. She immediately looked at us with a look that said, ¨Why are you here?”  We ignored the lady for a long time because she was staring at us a lot. We were just four kids, in line talking and laughing with each other. We were very loud too, but no one minded since we were at an amusement park, well no one other than the lady.


We were not really advancing in the line much since it was very slow. The lady in front of us staring had two kids, the kid looked at my sweater and made a comment about it to his mom. The lady immediately looked at me and stared with beady eyes. I remember exactly what she said, she first asked something. ¨Don´t you need your mother's guidance when you're wearing that?¨ I didn't say anything at first because it did not bother me but after a while she said, ¨That's something you shouldn't be wearing for your age, but I guess… based on your skin color, your people don't care too much about discipline.¨ ¨Latino moms should really pay more attention to their kids instead of drinking.¨


In that moment I honestly did not know what to say back. My friends are usually the type of people who start fights over every little thing, so I immediately thought both boys were going to hit her. But they did not, they were in shock as much as i was. I thought to myself ¨Maybe it's a cruel joke on me, whatever¨ But that wasn't all my emotions, I felt as if the sun was getting revenge on earth, putting it in flames. Who would know that a lady could be so racist and mean at the same time. The lady also turned back around to her kids and said,¨Don't turn out like them, they are bad people.¨ My friend asked if he should hit her which was crazy since she was an adult, but i said no. I was in so many different moods, I was definitely mad, I was sad that someone could be that racist, but I was mostly offended. I did not know how to handle the situation, which wasn't a surprise since I never handle things well. My friend took over the conversation and said ¨You should really consider thinking about stuff before you say them. I for sure know that my people won't be a racist, mean, cruel person¨
We instead asked her if she could shut up, that is when a guy behind us told the lady to leave us alone. The lady, stepped forward to the guy and cussed at him a few times telling him that we were criminals even if we didn't do anything. I felt mad, sad, and offended not just for me but for my people. At this point the sun managed to destroy earth with its heat, like the lady destroyed me.  After that we got separated into two different lines because there were two different sections of the ride. I was relieved to not have the lady in front of me, but also still sad of what she said. She definitely ruined my day. I wasn't mad, like i didn't want to go up to her face and punch her. I was more sad, disappointed that people are that racist.


You know that moment when you are very happy and life is amazing, but suddenly everything falls apart all at once? That was my moment. I really did not pay attention to racist people, but she opened my eyes. The world is not perfect, it's filled with lots of people. We need to appreciate the people who are different than most because those people have great ideas. They have good accomplishments and dreams. The lady that was racist to me she did not appreciate my individuality. We should all learn how to be nice and appreciate other people or else someone may get really hurt.



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