By Gracie Brinker
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Student Writing Awards, first place, creative writing category
One
time I posted a story on my Instagram about Trans lives and how they matter,
and some guy DM'ed me and told me to “leave the country then” since I clearly
didn’t agree with his agenda. The jokes on him though. He forgot the U in the
word country. Very ironic. Love Thy Neighbor doesn’t apply to those you don’t
support, apparently.
It's
come to my attention that the people around my age are going to be the ones
calling the shots soon. When our parents are geriatric and have to be put in
care homes, we are going to be the ones tearing this country apart further. If
our economic system even survives until the day we all turn 40, we'll have to
take over that. People you sat next to in high school math class will run for
office, but you used to watch them walk in late to class every single day. You
can't be late when addressing our rights. You glance over your shoulders to see
peers using artificial intelligence to pass exams. You wonder what type of
malpractice will be used in hospitals within the next 10 years. If the person
who's about to give you an emergency appendectomy had to Google what specific
surgery they were doing beforehand. You wonder if they’ll ever change. Surely
people can grow and mature after the liberation of the public school system.
Most people claim that life begins after you graduate high school. That might
be true for some. You can only wonder when the next time you'll be free is.
From birth, we are coached into working. Our lives revolve around working.
After we graduate, we are expected to work for the majority of our lives. Our
economy is so fucked up that some people have to work two jobs in order to eat
dinner. Basic human necessities shouldn’t be carrots dangled above the rabbits
of society. I’ve read Animal Farm; I know what happens when a pig runs
the show and it did not end well.
Although
my generation isn't completely strong, we're not completely soft either.
You’ll
hear men refer to a woman as a “slut” more than “beautiful.” You are told your
body is distracting, wishing you could just walk into school without wondering
if you're going to get in trouble for the length of your skirt. You have to
listen to the desperation of someone you loved dearly struggling to receive
affirming healthcare, just because insurance won’t claim it. You begin to see
how people choose what they care about.
You
become worried about your rights as a woman. You hear what they call us. Pigs
and dogs and bitches and animals. We are told to just take it. American girls
are supposed to be compliant and share an unflinching love for their country.
It's what we've been raised to do. It's what they write songs about; perfect
all-American girls. They don't sing of praises to our smarts or our minds, only
about how we look in a shirt with the American flag on it. They only care about
our American bodies and not our American words. Barely over a hundred years
ago, we couldn't vote for our own constitutional rights. You begin to wonder if
you will see those revoked again in your lifetime.
They
are prioritizing the predators over the victims. Little girls cannot defend
themselves against the big men, their mouths and their money. We are inventing
more ways to keep the intruder from breaking into the classroom, instead of
just making the weapon inaccessible to people with a damaged mindset. Children
don't need bulletproof backpacks because school should always be a safe place.
You don't really understand why safety has become such a dealbreaker nowadays.
You see more stories of violence than happiness.
They
are sending people away, never to be seen again. You remember reading about the
Holocaust in middle school and wondering how humans could be so despicable, so
evil, so heartless. You never thought something similar could ever happen
again. You thought we could have evolved. You have to bite your tongue at the
dinner table while your family quips about "those people” finally being
taken care of. You see social media posts from neighboring cities, warning
people of certain groups' whereabouts. You wonder if he could just once
spare an ounce of kindness. If he could just oil the spinning cogs that power
his tiny heart, letting it light up just one last time. You've seen it happen
to the Grinch; maybe there's a shot at a second chance.
And
you see it in the way people shake their heads, in the way surrounding
businesses turn their sprinklers on at peaceful protestors as if it's a scare
tactic. I thought water was supposed to burn witches, so why aren't you
melting then? The people running these operations won't have to wake up one day
with the fear that they won't be able to marry who they want to. They complain
about gas prices and the wage of living going up, but they don't have to be
afraid to be themselves. They don't have to hide their identity every time they
discuss something out loud. People on local internet forums discuss which
places to give their business to; places that won't make them feel scared to
exist. We keep an eye out for each other nowadays. People posting their
concerns about men in uniforms who like to point their weapons at things.
Anonymous users spreading information about small businesses who cannot keep
their political views out of their overpriced burgers. If I wanted extra salt,
I would've asked for more fries. You can tell them all the bad things that they
are for, but their sympathy rarely stretches far. They’ll shake hands with you
across the pew at church, but the second they get into their cars, it's
judgment. You wonder if it's even human behavior anymore. Hate is not something
we seek out on our own; it is taught to us through the same people sent to
protect us. For some people, hate is their pleasure. They like to have fun with
it. They have no problem seeking out someone else's discomfort for their own
enjoyment.
But
you'll find the community. You'll see hundreds of people standing on sidewalks,
holding up signs displaying their mutual distaste for the smallest man who ever
lived. People cheer when they drive by, thumbs up and smiles, in agreement of
basic human rights we all deserve. You wonder what we've done to have them
revoked. Being the way you are has never been a choice, so why should it matter
to anyone else? It makes you sad that people feel ashamed to be themselves.
There's an occasional negative look from a truck, sunglasses on to protect
identity. You wonder why cowards often hide behind closed doors and anonymous
Facebook posts. Do they feel shame too? For many of us, we have been coached
all of our lives to be as ashamed of how we are. If you are not white, straight
or male, you are not worthy of the American dream. So many hypocrites go around
preaching that on the Internet nowadays. A man makes a joke about how
attractive a child is, with hundreds of girls claiming of his abuse behind him.
And there's still people out there that think he is equivalent to a religious
figure. I thought we were told to never follow false idols. To them, if
nobody's looking, it doesn't matter.
Whatever
happened to “this land is your land, this land is my land”? In the present day
United States of America, you have to search for what’s left of your own
freedom if you want to survive. They try to keep us on a leash, but American
girls bite back.
About the Author
