Those Fireworks Are Actually a Metaphor for Losing My Virginity
A Personal Essay Regarding My Personal Essay
Dear Colleagues in Creative Writing 101:
Last workshop, there seemed to be some confusion regarding my piece “The Fourth of July: An Explosion of Color Inside Me.” To clarify, those fireworks are actually a metaphor for the time I lost my virginity to my high school boyfriend, Brian.
When I wrote “A cocoon of darkness enveloped me, as waves shot up — inside me — and gripped me,” that was actually about sex, not the sky.
Furthermore, the “rocket powering through me ” was a reference to Brian’s penis. I wasn’t actually talking about those rocket fireworks.
And when I said “dud,” it wasn’t about a firework that malfunctioned. I was talking about Brian’s performance.
To clarify, I lost my virginity on the Fourth of July, so I can see why some people were confused.
However, the metaphor is a commonly-used device in literature. Did you know that Animal Farm is actually not a children’s book from which the song “Old MacDonald Had a Farm” emerged? That blew my mind, too. So, what I was doing there with my virginity is pretty much exactly like what George Orwell was doing with communism.
In conclusion, I hope this clears things up. The loss of my virginity was a sacred, special time, like a religious experience (that was a simile; it wasn’t actually religious) and I’m delighted that you can join me on my journey of sexual awakening.
P.S. My next piece for workshop is entitled “The Sky Is Crying and So Am I.” I want to be clear: This is NOT about a thunderstorm. It’s about the time Brian broke up with me.
