Putting the Mask On

When I moved to the southern state, I knew I had a clean start.  I had breath of fresh air, and a new lease on life.  I don’t remember much of my first day at my new school, but I do vividly remember my first lie.  I was sitting in my foreign language class, and out of nowhere I felt a tap on my shoulder. I turned around and the girl behind me asked, ” hey, you’re new here, right”?  I politely answered yes and told her what midwestern state I was from.  She didn’t question me much, but she commented on how advanced I was in the foreign language class we were in.  And that’s where the lies began.  I realized that I had something unique and interesting about myself.  Was I fluent in the foreign language, no, but I had the upper hand.  My family was from the country where this language was spoken, so I knew a lot about the culture, and could easily make it my culture too.  And that is exactly what I did.  I was so ashamed of where I came from that I fabricated this huge lie that I was from another country.  I walked around speaking the language, eating foods from that country, and even buying books and magazines in that language.  People thought it was cool and different and I stuck out in the crowd as “that foreign guy”.  I was finally somebody, recognized, popular, and accepted.

To be continued….