Friday, July 28, 2006
Twenty-One
I think, if I can choose whatever it is I can be, I would like to be an acrobat.
If I can't fly, then flying in the air for a couple of seconds is the next best thing.
Plus, you get to do all these amazing stunts.
And people would go, "Wow. That's cool."
.....
Have you ever been praised by someone - I mean,
really praised by someone - and found that you're not quite sure what to say?
You can say 'Oh, don't be silly'. That way you would be humble.
Or you can say 'Thanks', which is, I think, one of the best replies to praises.
But me, I always get stuck with what to say, which is funny, considering I usually have a lot to say about nothing and everything.
I mean, okay, let's imagine here. You're sitting in your class, minding your own business, when someone starts off a conversation by saying to you, "I have a confession to make."
You're reading a book that time, and a really good one, too: 'My Sister's Keeper', by Jodi Picoult. Usually you don't like to be disturbed when you're reading, because you don't want to stop, but the tone of this person is very serious, and you know that you should listen. So you stop.
"What is it?" you say, intrigued despite yourself. A confession?
"It's just that," the person looks away for a second, then looks back at you, "I'm jealous of you."
You stared.
The person continues, "You've always been better at everything than me. Everything I can do, you can do twice as well." You try to interrupt, but she won't let you.
"Just let me continue," she says. And you do. So she does.
"I love to sing. But then it turned out that you can sing low notes so much better than I can.
I used to be good at drawing, too. When I was 11 or 12, I loved to draw all these cute pictures of girls and dresses, things like that. But then it turned out that you could draw better than I could. I stopped drawing.
I used to write poems all the time. Then I found that you write poems, too. You wrote them so well that I stopped writing poems because I got ashamed of mine compared to yours.
You're smart! Even though I work hard this year and got higher marks than you, you're still smart.
And there's running, of course. You're a good runner.
And you're so nice! Even though some weirdo or a geek at school talks to you, you'd laugh and treat them as you would to any other friend. Me, I can't even look at them in the eye.
When someone says something mean to me or bad about me, I want to scream, or burst into tears. I'm always affected. My emotions are always open and obvious. But you? You're strong. You fly by what they say. It's like you don't even care at all.
You're just... you're just an
all-rounder. And I'm jealous of you."
When someone says something like that to you. When someone has a bad day because they think that they're lower than you. When you tell her she's pretty but she doesn't believe you.
What are you supposed to say then?
.....
4:39 PM
