Blog Post #1: I Once Was Miss America

Today, as we have for many years, we find ourselves struggling through society and how people who find their homes within it. To me this story was about how we discover ourselves through what we do and how we form ourselves throughout childhood. When Roxanne Gay was still in school, she found herself “reaching for the bottom rung” of the social ladder. Without getting too personal, I found myself in a comparable situation in middle school. Although different in the details, in sixth grade I left my Catholic school to join public education. This left me with no friends, little to no social skills, and a quirky sans enjoyable attitude to try and endure if you wanted to get to know me. Gay found herself in a similar situation in that she was generally as unpopular as you could get. However, she sought out to be like the characters in her favorite book series, Sweet Valley High. She wanted to be popular, like those girls, and as she put it she seemed to have a whole secret personality that she built upon one of the characters, while her public appearance seemed to be on the other twin’s shoulders. She built her whole personality on it, and seemingly forgot to find herself until she matured, and until she began finding out who she even was. Today she found herself, and laughs at the past. For me I never truly related to anyone else, but found myself in isolation, with my parents being my best friends for a few years. Then when people were forced to hang out with me in extracurricular activities, they began to know me and to like me. This is how I gained friendships, and today I find myself almost to be popular amongst my retired High School class. Well, popular for band. But still, I had many friends and at least most of them pretend to like me. Now I have my own personality, and it has grown to be much stronger than it once was, and I am finally my own.