Today's post is my entry into this week's 100 Word Challenge, hosted by Velvet Verbosity. The 100 Word Challenge is an exercise in which we write exactly 100 words in response to the weekly prompt word. Click the link to read the other entries–good stuff over there!
This week's prompt was "act".
I remember those brown eyes staring back at me from the mirror above the sink. “Who is she?” I wondered, looking at the girl with the round, freckled face and pigtail braids. I was seven, a third grader, and already capable of such existential thinking. In that moment I realized that I didn't fit, even inside myself and my own life. I didn't know who I was or where I belonged.
My whole life became an act, an attempt to fit in. Every move brought a new situation, a new social group and I became adept at changing myself.
I just had my almost 15 yr old daughter read. She smiled and said, ok, I get it. Then she stopped "fixing" her hair.
ReplyDeletegood job, Tin. We liked it a lot.
When people say things like, "childhood is so magical" I stare at them as though they just grew an extra head.
ReplyDeletenice catch - I like this. I remember my "wondering who I was" days - like they were yesterday . . . oh, wait.
ReplyDeleteYes, I too can remember the days of not fitting in and not knowing how to be myself (or even how to find myself). I guess that's most of us. Good job capturing this passage of life.
ReplyDeleteCake, wow. What a compliment "we" liked it.
ReplyDeleteVelv, I know. Me too.
Barbara, I still don't know who I am. That's the rest of the story.
YGW, This is one of my most vivid (and one of few) childhood memories, but I still don't know who I am to this day, still working it.
Thanks everyone for the comment love! Really makes it worth putting my soul out there on display.