Behind the Red, White, and Blue

Who am I?

I'm an obnoxious, hypocritical, moody, bitter, mostly empty, unfeeling, emotionally stunted, fat, ugly, clumsy, stuck up, stubborn teenage terrorist that shouldn't even be in America because I didn't care enough to learn English before I came here.

Oh, wait.

That's who you think I am.

And do you know what? No matter how many times I say "you're irrelevant" or "I'm just gonna shake it off", when I'm laying in my bed at night, trying to fall asleep, do you know what I think about?

You guessed it.

Maybe now you're questioning that comment you made last week on a whim, maybe now you're thinking 'that's not me she's talking about- it can't be! I only said that like one time, and she wasn't even there!', maybe now, God forbid, you want to know the real me.

So, who am I?

I'm a teenage girl who had to leave everything- my friends, my boyfriend, my family, my high school, my teams, my clubs, my life- and come to America, because I was in danger, because I had to wake up every morning and wonder if my cousins were still alive, if my aunts and uncles had been shot in cold blood walking home from the market, if I was going to be next.

Trust me, I did not come to America because I wanted to. I did not transfer to your school in the middle of my junior year because I wanted to. I did not even learn English because I wanted to.

That's who I am.