“The Stereotype”

At many times in life I have felt like being a boy would make life so much easier. As a boy, you do not have to face as many stereotypes or discrimination for something you can not even change about yourself. Many people still believe a woman’s role in life is to stay home, take care of the kids, and practically sit there and look pretty, and this stereotype is implanted into our lives at a very young age.

I remember there were many moments in elementary school where teachers would ask for help putting up chairs or carrying books, but not from everybody, specifically “strong boys” as they would say. Every time they would ask this question, I would think to myself,

“Why can’t I?” 

Although times have changed, people still have this belief and it sucks as a girl not being able to go outside and enjoy certain things in fear of being kidnapped or harassed for simply existing. 

“My Hero”

My dad has trouble expressing his love to me in normal ways because of how he grew up, but he does have his own ways of showing it to me. I have this vivid memory of a red convertible. Red. It was not a dark maroon red, but bright red. My dad did not put down the roof that much due to it being parked outside and he did not want to get it dirty, but when he did we would always go on drives to the beach..his way of saying “I love you” to me. He loves the beach and still goes every week and whenever we get the chance to go with each other, till this day he repeats the same saying “I took you here as a kid.”

“Her and I”

For most of my life, I’ve grown up with only my mom and I in the household. Though I still talk and see my dad, my mom up until I was 9 years old was the anchor in my life. She taught me everything I know about manners, being respectful, and most importantly grateful. As a single mom who just came to America when she had me, we grew up not having much, not as bad as others, but still not much. But still, all I can remember about my childhood with only her are happy memories. She never let me see her struggle and always kept persevering even through the toughest times. 

In the present day, my mom is as happy as she could be. She met the love of her life, my step dad, and is living her best life now. She does not have to worry so much about money, or even me, because of the help of my step dad. Seeing her happy and in love always makes me have a smile.

“Reality”

In my opinion, a lot of the people as teenagers that we are influenced by and look up to are not realistic. Most of them in reality are horrible people who put up a persona in order for themselves to keep growing and making money. The reality is, not everyone can afford the millions of dollar houses they live in, or can go shopping everyday for the things they promote to us to get us to buy. “Influncers” these days put an unrealistic perception of life on us and with this it will continue for us teenagers to never be content with what we have. 

“Why it’s hard to trust someone”

Escape. Escape was what everyone told me at this point in my life. “He’s not good for you,” “He’s going to hurt you” is what everyone said to me repeatedly, but I didn’t listen. It was like he had me under this spell. Everyone thought I was dumb, and looking back I might have been, but in the moment everything just felt right. He treated me as if I was the best thing that has ever happened to him and told me all these sweet words, but things started to change for the worse. He started to be angry, angry at the world and taking it out on me. Whenever I crossed him in any way, the worst and nastiest things would come out of his mouth, he would start to get aggressive and punch holes in the wall, but it was okay right? It was okay because he was just mad, not at me I thought. He made me feel as if he was my only one. He was the one who hurt me, but also the one person who was there and understood me. 

Being cheated on really changes the perspective you have on yourself. I would lay awake at night after it happened and wondered what she had that I didn’t and why I wasn’t good enough for him. These feelings don’t just go away either, even now it’s hard for me to be able to trust anyone like that. I have a guard up 24/7 and I tend to push people away once things get bad. It really alters your mind and how you live everyday, and on my worst enemy I would never wish this to happen to them.