(Insert Socially Accepted Title Here) By Sofia R

      A powerful force, a strong current, sweeping away anything in its path. Going against it
kills. Having to face the current although it might be hurtful, passing by stronger than anything ever known, because it is meant for you to shy away and become a coward. Continuing on, it all gets better. The current has passed and the main objective, the lake, is a peaceful realization that all those expectations, concerns, “crucial details” were all for what? Nothing. Nothing at all.
     A summer evening with what I thought were the people I most cherished, mostly because seeing them was out of the question, most of the time. What I didn’t know, the hidden truth, was that many events had occurred before that day in time, years ago. The evident resilience my parents had in them to overlook everything for their children, to go with the current and not against it for fear of harming the family they were trying to create. As the day goes on, and we have an amazing time eating food and laughing about whatever topic was brought up, it seems as if nothing could go wrong, there would be no mess ups, and at the end of the day we would just leave with a smile on our face, no cares in the world, because everything was all right in the world again. What I didn’t know was that nothing is like it seems, and I shouldn’t get carried away in my thoughts, believing something that will never happen even though I want it to occur. As all of the kids are playing together in a big corn container, running around and jumping from

one side to the other, ear piercing screams are all we hear. It is evident that something isn’t right, and we sit together in a circle, worried about what the future will bring. At that moment in time, we made a pact, a pact to forgive and forget, a pact so that nothing comes between us although our parents or whoever is fighting might think differently than we do. As we slowly crawl out and walk, emotions pierce through my heart, because hearing a mother’s scream is never a good sign. It is a sign of heartbreak, and a fear that eventually something bad will happen. I run, as fast as my legs will take me, away from the current that tells me to follow what my parents say, to get in the car because we are leaving. What I didn’t know was that as soon as I was pushed into the car, eventually on a plane back home, my life would be changed drastically, where I wouldn’t speak to certain people for two years, and for others even longer. I asked occasionally when we would go back, why we weren’t going back, and what was wrong with those people that they didn’t want to talk to me, and I couldn’t understand what I had done so wrong to make them move away, what seemed like the farthest away they had been in a very long time.
     Now, I am able to understand. Although it was tough to realize that my own grandparents had pushed my father under, treating him like he was nothing, while my uncle and aunt (his brother and sister) got everything they ever wished for. All the while, my dad was breaking his back with four hundred dollars in his pocket to somehow make a life in a whole new world. Over the years, his parents wouldn’t accept that he had made it on his own, got an apartment, an actual life he created for himself without relying on another person's money. The buildup of hatred people are able to obtain becomes unimaginable, mostly over the course of decades. It eats away at the person receiving left handed compliments, having to shy away from standing up for themselves for fear of hurting someone’s feelings. This is how my parents had to act. Just

swallowing their feelings and focusing on their end goal, which was to have a better life, in the end finally succeeding and surpassing their own objectives.
     Why do people try to change something that already has one course of action? More importantly, why do they try to close open wounds suddenly, when the problem is still there and nothing is resolved? These questions were important to me, since I have been asking myself what the answer to them are since that horrendous fight. Over the years, I have learned to accept the wrongdoings of my grandparents, and I still see traces of that hatred in the way they talk and act. Maybe the answers to all my questions are right in front of me, but at the same time so far away from being discovered. As that summer and winter went by, eventually my mom gave me a necklace that my grandma had sent over. It was a silver chain necklace with a dragonfly symbol on it. Of course, taking it felt wrong. Not only because I could almost feel the pity soaring through my veins as I held the chain, but because I felt that it was not a genuine gift, but rather one to make up for lost time. The time that has already passed will never return, but still today very few are able to recognize that. Although now, wearing the necklace, I don’t think of the story behind it. Rather, I concentrate on the meaning it specifically has for me, which is going against what everyone else tells you, to create what you believe is the best for yourself and the people you love and trust. Watching your success bloom leaves you amazed, never ceasing to let someone else tell you how to live your life, where society does not even hold a fraction of importance against your plans for the world and impacts whatever life you touch.