Racquel Rodriguez

Ms. Buckless
Writing 104 H
4 April 2016
Inside the Utterly Complicated and Ingenious Mind of Jessie Donegan
She is annoying, she is argumentative, she is opinionated, and she is absolutely and
utterly insane. When asked to describe Jessie, most people would go about describing her in this
way. Yet these people dont really know Jessie. They dont know what shes been through and
they sure as hell dont know what goes on inside her impossibly convoluted mind. Jessie is
helpful, she is strong-willed, she is intuitive, and yes, she is absolutely and utterly insane.
Things were normal at first. She had two parents who were hopelessly in love and an
older brother who cared for her more than he did himself. Things were good, but things changed
rapidly. Love could not withstand nor mend the constant bickering between her parents. And, for
her brother, love could not defeat the lust and promiscuity of cocaine on a silver platter. A
divorce and a handful of rehab visits later gave shape to the Jessie Donegan that I know and love
today.
Jessie is helpful. I met Jessie in Mrs. Elsons afternoon kindergarten class. I was the new
girl and I was consummately terrified. But Jessie helped ease this terror. She was my assigned
friend and, I must admit, she was the best assigned friend I could have asked for. Our arranged
friendship ended up becoming one to envy. We became the best of friends. Thirteen years later,
weve been through everything together. We have rejoiced amidst the good times and, most
importantly, we have survived through the bad. In all honesty, I have absolutely no idea as to
how I would have survived or how I will survive the bad times without Jessie. At the lowest

points in my life, she helped raise me up. Her advice, although sometimes curt, is always
inordinately helpful. When she has time on her hands and when she isnt dealing with her own
tumultuous life, I can always count on Jessie to send me a heartfelt paragraph of incomparable
advice. Her words are curing. Maybe its because of all shes been through or maybe its just how
she is. Either way, Jessie continuously choses to make light of her struggles. Instead of feeling
pity for herself she uses her rather unfortunate experiences to help others. She limits her self pity
and inflates her capability to help. In my eyes, this is an unparalleled characteristic to withhold.
Jessie is strong-willed. Ive always known Jessie to be tough, practically everyone has.
And it is clear as to why. Shes been through it all. I asked Jessie, What is your earliest
memory?, and she responded with, My dad having a seizure in the arcade with me. Its almost
as if life had this evil precedented plan for her to make her life as painful and as onerous as
possible. A few short years after this incident, Jessies parents got a divorce. This was no civil
divorce. It was full of animosity and vengeance. To this day, Jessie still deals with the
ramifications of this. Her parents maintain little to no contact and sometimes Jessie thinks its
better off this way. She says that if they were to talk, it would result in even more damage. This
divorce has, unfortunately, played a large role in molding who she is and who her brother is.
Jessies mental illnesses all link back to the events of this divorce. But her brother, Jack,
seemingly had it worse. Being a few years older, he saw more and he remembered more. The
divorce propelled him to rely on drugs as a getaway. So not only was Jessie dealing with her
parents split and her erratic hormones, but also with her brothers debilitating drug addiction.
There is no wonder why Jessie can be argumentative at times. Shes a warrior. She continuously
fights for what she believes in and is absolutely resilient throughout the fight.

Jessie is intuitive. With a freshman year GPA exceeding 4.0 and SAT scores good enough
to get her into Harvard, it is clear that Jessie is nothing other than a genius. And shes always
been this way. Shes always been the shrewdest of students. Over the years, she has continuously
been recognized for her immense intelligence. She is possibly the smartest person I know. It
wasnt until sophomore year that this changed, or metamorphosed rather. When I asked Jessie,
What was the saddest moment of your life?, she replied, I struggled so much at the beginning
of my high school career that at times I didnt think I would ever graduate. I thought I was going
to drop out. This struggle was due to her incapacitating mental illnesses. For some time, her
mental illnesses took control of her. She became this entirely different person that was seemingly
unrecognizable. She fell for the sensuality of partying, which was something especially unlike
her to do. She had always been against the consumption of drugs and alcohol. Afterall, she had
witnessed what it had done to her brother. But, at the time, it was her only apparent escape. Long
story short, this led to a number of hospital visits and the arrest of her mother. However, Jessie
being the strong-willed person she is, overcame this. I asked Jessie, What are you proudest of?,
and the answer came easy to her. Pulling through my sophomore year. I then followed up my
above-mentioned question, What was the saddest moment of your life?, with, What was the
happiest? Jessie responded by saying, The happiest moment of my life was probably when I
got accepted to Dickinson. The fact that I made it through those times and am now on the path I
always imagined I would be on makes me incredibly happy. Ensuing of her boundless struggles,
Jessie came out wiser and more adept. For most people, this would not be the case. Most people
would crumble. This is what makes Jessie Donegan so remarkable.
Jessie is absolutely and utterly insane. From her kinky red hair to her week-old smudged
eyeliner to her customary groutfits and to her long razor-sharp nails, Jessie exudes insanity. Yet

her cracked appearance simply does not compare to the insanity of her mental being. For
example, Jessie has spent a good number of her nights painting outlandish figures and quotes on
her bedroom walls. Her room became a capsule of her hysteria. (That is before her brother spray
painted over her artwork in a fit of anger. She then had to paint over it with a very unfitting
beige.) Yet another example of Jessies conspicuous insanity is her fairly memorable outbreak in
chemistry class sophomore year. In the midst of a lesson, Jessie stood atop her desk, both
enraged and confused, venting about how nothing is real. And these are just two of the many
examples that prove how undoubtedly mad Jessie Donegan can be. This invokes fear and
bewilderment within most people and for this reason, most people avoid Jessie. Theyll watch
her from a distance as if shes some sort of varmint. And, yes, I must agree, Jessie can resemble
that of a varmint at times, but thats exactly what I love about her. I love that Jessie is wholly and
unapologetically herself. I take kind to her annoyance, I learn from her arguments and her
unyielding opinions, and I find adventure and entertainment amongst her insanity. So for those
who see Jessie in such a negative light, I suggest you look closer. Because Jessie is by far the
most affable, the most resilient, the most intelligent, and the most fascinating person I have come
to know.