✍️ Day 29 — Write Down 5 Pieces of Vivid Experiences
How My Highschool Life Taught Me to Be A Brave Girl
(and extend one of them.)
One. I was in a study room where there were a bookshelf and an armchair. I called a woman Ms. Lai. It was the first year of my kindergarden and I was in “Small Purple Class”. She was the advisor of “Big Green Class.” She gave me cookies and candies, telling my mom that I would be great some day. She was one of the kindest teachers I have ever met.
Two. It was the second year of elementary school. I knew how to play the piano so my music teacher asked me to accompany when the classmates sang. There was paddle in the organ which was different from the piano. I had to try hard to step it while playing. It was fun.
Three. It was the forth year of elementary school. My friend and I organized a small music group called Lavender Music Band, and taught our classmates how to play as a small orchestra. We used the lunch break to practice. I remembered we did it on the B1 floor. It was hot and the air was choking.
Four. I stood on the stage in my class. I was going to sing Richard Marx’s Right Here Waiting. But I got so nervous that I forgot the lines. The class started to laugh at me, and I was going to cry. But I didn’t.
Five. High school. I didn’t have much memory. But I remembered the time I was in the marching band. One of the senior students in our clarinet group scolded me firecely. And then I dropped the band because of my bad relationship with her and the financial burden in my family.
The forth one is the most vivid one. For a teenage girl like me, it really hurted. I did finally finish the song. I cried on my way home, didn’t dare to let my mom know. I wanted to make her proud. I didn’t want her to know I was bullied by a male classmate who was jealous of my accomplishment on schoolwork, which he confessed to me 10 years later.
He did that because he was childish, because he couldn’t believe how a girl could be more excellent than him, and because he couldn’t find another way to beat me on schoolwork. So he went to other girls in our class. They got together and laughed at EVERY MISTAKE I made during junior high school. You asked me what I did to make them dislike me? I was a little arrogant, aggressive, and active on everything I did and in class. I was not that kind of girl they were. I was different so I got bullied.
But it was not my fault. For years, I have blamed myself for not getting along well with other girls. Maybe I do have something to change, to modify, and to be more soft. But being excellent on what you are good at, raising your hands frequently when you have questions or opinions, and daring to fight the boys back on gender issues when they are wrong ARE NOT WHAT YOU CAN’T DO.
I want to tell every girl, especially those in junior and senior high school. If others dislike you for all those reasons, they need to be educated, not you.
Be active in expressing your opinions, dare to speak up for yourself, and fight for your space and right to be a girl. The word “girl” doesn’t mean weakness or tenderness. It just means your gender, period.
You don’t have to be sorry for being aggressive. Just be who you are. And one day, you will naturally prove they are wrong.
The “Wendy’s 642 Things to Write About “ project is a self writing plan based on 642 Things to Write About by the San Francisco Writers’ Grotto. If you are interested in this series, please clap or leave a comment. All the articles in this project is free. But if you want to read my own perspective or stories in my country, Taiwan, here are the latest ones: The Difficulties of Being a Taiwanese in 21th
