I reside in the wonderful city of the cultural Tarpon Springs, located in the steamy state of Florida. I have always lived here. I was born at Dunedin Mease Hospital and raised in the good, ol’ Holiday Lake Estates. I usually live in my room, my sacred place of rest and magical wonders. I have toiled years to create a perfect shrine. I don’t think anyone can truly be satisfied until his or her main environment is a reflective one. Therefore, my room is very much reflective of my personality, it‘s a temple to myself. It is decorated from carpet to ceiling, literally. Everyone who enters my room is astonished with how much it resembles me! There are exotic and beautiful shimmering butterflies, sparkling, mystical stars sprinkled throughout my ceiling, wildly unique animals that live together on my shelves. And oh, the lights! My many lights produce a warm, colorful glow that makes everything seem so much better. Lastly, great and extinct tulips plant that ranges over six feet tall with four, majestic tulips blooming all the time. Since their pollen is so bright and gold, it lights my room up as much as all the lamps combined! The secrets of the places and person’s from whom I have received all these treasures will always be kept shrouded in mystery...to all.
Most of who I am has come from my life: my family, friends, and society in general. My hopes, my dreams, my goals have been shaped and molded by many, but most of all me. I am everything. I can be whatever I want to be and that’s the beauty of our world. As I have grown older, I have matured what I want to be, do, and show. I have reached what I believe now to be my true self. It took me nearly fifteen years to reach this place; it’s perfect.
My goals once were my dreams. I believe that dreams are just goals waiting to be taken from fairy tale realm into reality. Fairy tales are stories of dreams, all possible. I know perfection is reachable. My view is that perfection is our highest goal, one we can reach, but the point at which we can say we are honestly happy with whom we are and would change nothing. Basically, perfection to me is being the person you want the world to see you as. Some call this “self-actualization”.
My largest goal in life was to be perfect. And the way I reached that was this summer, actually. I sat down with myself and thought over what was dragging me down. What I needed to add or delete from my life to be happier. I found that some friendships and things I did were making me not reach my goal. I first went and started teaching myself not to judge as much. I was caught up in the whole “she’s a prep and he’s a Goth” state of mind. I would discriminate against people and not become friends with someone just because they weren’t weird or they wore a certain brand of clothing. I started my training in acceptance and improved decently. Then, I met people who were encouraging to me about becoming who I wanted to be. I came back home after a long summer away and realized things had changed, including me. So, feeling left out from the happenings of my friends I got a chance to pull back and see really what my friendships with them were all about. I saw that half of it was petty and not what I needed. If it was hiding talents I had due to them possibly thinking I was stuck up or just the simple fact that I really couldn’t relate to some of them, I always felt pressed down by some of my friends. In this, I still kept many of my friends just withdrew myself from certain parts of our past friendships. I became close with others that let me be a part of myself I couldn’t be around my other friends. Everyone has many sides and it’s hard finding a group of friends that you can only hang out with because you are multiple things and need multiple friends that all understand a little part of you. At the end of the summer, I was satisfied with what I had created. I now had higher self-esteem, better friendships, and was less prejudice and judging. I am still working on this goal and I know will be for a long time.
Who am I? I’m not a name or a number. I am a personality, a fresh face. A name is just another word with the intention of classifying us, but it means nothing. Age is another number, used to give a false idea of maturity and experience. I’m an identity. I am myself.
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