One Day in the Life of Crystal Aichi

“A-choo! A-choo!” is what her brother wakes to almost every morning. “Those darn allergies,” says Crystal as she stumbles out of bed, almost running into the door, trying to find her Kleenex box. As soon as she has awakened, Crystal is aware of her differences. She finds herself constantly wishing she could change these things, and when she was younger, she clearly remembers trying her hardest to believe in the power of magic, because that would be the only thing that could maker her normal. Stepping out of bed, she automatically feels her shortness. Having a bed so high up from the ground definitely doesn’t help a short person’s self esteem. Walking from her bed to the bathroom, Crystal feels the whole sole of her feet touch the ground. This reminds her of her uniqueness, yet also of her “rare condition.” Everyone in her family was born with flat feet, and when she was younger, she saw it as a “cool fact.” But you know the feeling, where you realize that something that you once thought was cool turned out to be completely weird, and possibly bad? Well, that is how she felt about her feet. When a child grows up, her views on her surroundings and herself dramatically change and she begins to worry more than she should. She’s finally made it to the bathroom, a long twenty seconds after hopping, no, forcing herself out of bed, but failing and having to roll over onto the ground (talk about a painful fall). She looks in the mirror. What does she see? Well, nothing. Reaching for her glasses and putting them on, Crystal again lifts her head to look at herself in the mirror. “Wow, I definitely do not have morning glow today. Bummer.” She reaches for her Clinique products and begins her day.

***

“Throw it in the bag…” she sings on the way to school. Her brother shakes his head at her; she knows that he is secretly wishing his sister would “put a sock in it” before he’d have to do that himself. Making gestures with her hands and mouthing her lips to the song, Crystal finds happiness somehow, meanwhile still pondering the reason why she is awake so early. What an exciting moment in the day. Every second she realizes her mind is racing with thoughts- what if I never went to school? I have a car and money. Could I just keep going to wherever I wanted? Oh, no. If my parents found out…

***

It is now English class and Crystal sits there wondering, “How do these people come up with ideas so fast? How do they understand what the text is really saying? I don’t understand. Is there something wrong with me?” Her father always did have this conversation with her- that not everyone thinks alike. He said that Crystal wasn’t entirely an analytical thinker, rather an “artistic, free-willed thinker.” Although this seems like a good excuse as to why she doesn’t think like the others, there seems to always be another thing that is stopping her from feeling normal. She just sometimes feels like she doesn’t fit in. And, it’s hard for her. She has always felt separated from this school. Although she has her own group of friends, she feels like their opinions, their fashion interests, their ways of thinking don’t pair up to those of the rest of the school. “Why am I here?” Crystal asks herself, still unfortunately not having come up with an answer. Maybe a couple more sneezes, a couple more songs, and a couple more English classes may do the trick. If not, then there’s always magic, right? (612)