I remember my twenty-first year. Although I had not lost my parents, I lost the love of my life, Jeff. He had reconciled with his high school sweetheart over Christmas break. I had believed that we were destined to get married, and now I felt I had nothing to live for.
Boolean algebra made no sense, and I was failing it. I cried all during the last test. I worked part time as a cashier in the snack shop, and sometimes my relief was late. This made me late to my sociology class, and the cruel professor always made some catty remark about my tardiness.
My self-esteem was shattered, and I developed an anxiety disorder. I scheduled an appointment with a professor in the psychology department, hoping for help. Instead of listening, being empathetic, and offering help, he had the audacity to tell me that he was sexually attracted to me.
I ended up talking to Dean Georgia Martin. When I told her that I thought I was having a nervous breakdown, she heard me. She listened as I told her of my plans to drop out of college and train to be an airline stewardess. She wisely counseled me and encouraged me to work hard and stay in school. Telling me that she was available to talk anytime I needed to provided a huge safety net.
Somehow I survived that year and being twenty-one, but it was definitely one of the most difficult years of my life.
Wow...that's a lot to go through in a year as important as becoming twenty-one. I can't relate, yet anyway, because I have yet to reach that age. Becoming twenty one has always been the age that everyone tells you to look forward to because that's when you are actually considered a full-fledged adult. Reading this was a new view on what being twenty one can also entitle. Thank you very much for the insight.
ReplyDeleteThanks for your response. Hopefully your twenty-first will be awesome. You probably will feel like an adult. I have always been a slow bloomer.
DeleteActually, you ought to try and borrow from Robison's story, and write your own modeled on hers. As a reading response, this is too subjective. What if a reader's 21st year was perfect? Will she be able to understand the story? You want to keep your reading responses to the technical side of creative writing, not the affective and personal side (though I always hope that you ARE moved by the work).
ReplyDeleteAs a bit of your own writing, however, the above is some of the best I've seen from you. Use it.