I walked down the aisle to all the staring faces. To the place where we will choose to spend the next three important years of our life. To the place where we either stay with our people or split away from them.  To the place where, well you get idea.  But, to understand this, we have to go back a little bit.

We were having a normal morning getting ready for school.  I started to walk to school with my brother. I got to school and was walking to first class, when some popular kids called my best friend Chava over.

 “Go ahead I’ll meet up with you later,” I said, knowing they didn’t care about me as much as they cared about Chava.

Throughout the school day, I really couldn’t focus because today was the day we were going to plan our next three years–the most important years of our life. The next half of the school day, we went through our classes, but one-by-one we had our names called out of the classroom. When your name got called, you would go somewhere and find out the suggested group/school you would go to for the next three years. No one knows what happened and what decisions you made because you’re not allowed to talk about it.

My name got called during history class. I followed the person out of the room and into a very tiny room with mirrors all over.  

“Stand in front of the mirror the feels the most comfortable to you.”  

I closed my eyes and let my body drag me towards the mirror.  When I felt myself come to a stop, I opened my eyes and saw my distorted reflection in the mirror I choose.  The woman gasped.  What was she gasping about? I thought.  She pushed a button and all the mirrors flipped over with symbols I couldn’t understand on them except for the one I was standing on.  At the sight of my confused face, the woman started to explain. Your body seems to know what group it wants to be in. When I walked towards the mirror with no symbol, it means my body is a mix of many symbols. This is unusual, only few people are like this. This was not good.

Now, lets go back to the choosing place, also known as where we choose our next three most important years of our life.  All of the other people were sitting in the crowd.  

Cenia Finkleberry addressed the crowd.  

“We are gathered here today to witness the people of our youth choose the start of their path to adulthood. To watch these people choose to stay or leave their people and friends. To see what they’re will make as their first adult decision. With that we will start with the ceremony!”  

I was one of the last people to choose.  I drank the water and stared at the giant, glass bins.  Finally, I walked over to the brave soul bin. I walked to the back of that section and waited for the rest of the ceremony to be over.

At the end of ceremony, the brave souls’ group went to the roof of the building and everyone attached themselves to a very thin zip line. Finally, after everyone went Malen attached herself and jumped.  I was next. I attached myself and jumped.  I felt the rush of wind in my face and found myself screaming with joy! The zipline appeared to go into the ground and back out. Finally, it landed on top of a mountain!  I finally felt free!  I was where I belonged.

This story is to remind every girl to just be themselves; it doesn’t matter what others think of you.