An open letter to middle and high schoolers on National Walk-Out Day

Dear students,

I would like to tell you a story.

Once upon a time, there was a girl who loved the underdog. The poor, the socially awkward, the less attractive, the athletically challenged, the nerds, the geeks, the outcasts…those were her people. 

They were the ones who accepted her no matter what. She didn’t have to be flawless, have a perfect home life, be talented or even “normal.” She didn’t have to keep up with the latest fads and make sure that every hair was in place. She could be herself with them, because they only had one rule: if you love and accept me, I’ll love and accept you. 

One day, one of the popular girls approached her. 

“You could be popular, too,” she said. “I can teach you how to talk, walk and dress like one of us. Hang out with me and I’ll help you fit in.”

Fitting in and being popular started sounding pretty good. Sure, she had to dress differently, talk differently, and pretty much completely change who she was. It felt awkward, like putting on a costume and trying out for the lead in the school play, though deep inside she knew she wasn’t an actress. But with time, she would get used to it, she told herself. Eventually, it would all begin to feel normal. She would feel normal. 

“There is one more thing you have to do to really belong with us,” the popular girl said one day. “You have to get rid of your friends. Not only that, you have to do it in front of the entire school, to really prove you are one of us. Ignore them. Make fun of them. Humiliate them. Whatever you have to do to prove that you are now one of us and not one of them, anymore.”

The girl felt sick. She loved her friends. They had been with her through everything good and bad in her life. She didn’t want to hurt them, but she had put so much effort into becoming popular, could she really turn back now?

The next day she was walking with her new friends when her “old” friends approached her. The popular girl looked at her and raised her eyebrows.

“Let’s see what you’re really made of,” her expression seemed to say. 

The girl swallowed hard, and truly believed she had swallowed her own heart. Burying down everything in her that was screaming “THIS IS WRONG!” she turned to her old group of misfits…and began to make fun of them. 

Down the rabbit hole

Dear reader,

So this has been a long time coming. Thanks to some advice from a sweet friend, I finally decided to take the plunge and start a blog. Matt has been on my back about blogging for a while now, but I never knew quite what to write about.

At the same time, my collection of incomplete creative writing has been growing, and well, dying, as it sits unread and unfinished in my laptop and assorted notebooks. I believe my frequent writer’s block has been largely due to a fear of completion, or more so, a fear of completed works never being published or read.

While sitting at the playground today, letting the kiddos run wild and enjoying some much needed time with my homeschool mom-friends, we started talking about our artistic passions and, more importantly, what has been keeping us from those passions.

After voicing my feelings and fears about completing and publishing my writing, one friend said, “Start a blog and publish your stories in episodes!”

Genius! Why haven’t I ever thought of that? I fully believe that God puts certain people in our lives for a reason, and Tascha, I am so thankful He put you in mine.

So here I am, taking a leap of faith thanks to a little nudge at just the right time. Between parenting/homeschooling and my job as a journalist, I’m not sure yet how often I will be able to post, but I hope you will join me on this journey and maybe get some entertainment (and occasionally encouragement) from the goings-on inside my head.

Until next time,

Crystal