Riley Mosby

Jernigan
AP Senior Lit
7 August 2015
Pink

Ive always considered myself different, but it was not until relatively recently that I

learned how totally wrong I was.

Even in my earliest memories, I noticed differences between me and my peers, and

instead of trying to hide those differences and fit in, I found any way I could to highlight them.

While most little girls pretended to be princesses, I knew I was destined for queenship, and I was

just as comfortable roughhousing with boys as I was making daisy chains like Ferdinand the

Bull. In middle school, I began to wear my differences like an expensive fur coat. I looked down

on people who wore t-shirts, and prided myself on my seemingly inherent inability to fit into any

one category. Every day when I got home from school, I would log into Facebook and roll my

eyes at all the clich posts about what girls like, and I hated the color pink just because it was a

feminine color. I decided I was really interested in math, and I read twice as much as most of my

peers. Although this need for nonconformity mellowed as I entered high school, it wasnt until

the summer of junior year when I attended the American Legion Auxiliary Volunteer Girls State

that I started to question the identity I had created for myself.

ALA VGS was a weeklong government actualization camp that allowed me and four

hundred other girls to become a part of a mock political process as we ran our own fictional

state. As I began to interact with other girls, I found that these girls were smart and talented, and

just as good as me in the areas I prided myself in. During the week, there were various

opportunities to run for office, and on the first night, I decided to run for party delegate. As I
half-listened to others give their speeches, I mentally categorized my clubs and activities to list at

the end of my campaign speech. I was shocked to hear that these girls were in all the same

activities! After I gave my speech and listed my clubs, I was met with little applause.

Unsurprisingly, I lost the race. That night I went back to the dorms to wrestle with that strange

new feeling of disappointment and defeat. For perhaps the first time in my life, I was in an

environment full of girls just like me; the only difference between us was that I suddenly felt like

a poser.

In the following week, there were more elections, some that I lost, and some that I won,

but I left that week feeling like I had fulfilled my purpose of learning how to be an informed

citizen, but I also couldnt shake the feeling that I was the same as these four hundred other girls.

A few weeks after Girls State, I was indulging in my favorite guilty pleasure: Facebook. I

saw a post labeled Just Girly Things. I was about to do my customary eye roll when I

registered that I completely related to the post. I thought back to one of the seminars I attended at

Girls State, one that didnt even involve government. The speaker encouraged us to pursue

careers even if they were predominantly male, but it just as easily applied to this post. I suddenly

realized that I spent so much time pursuing interests for the sake of being different, that I didnt

even consider my actual likes. That post opened my eyes and in the following weeks I began to

really think about my choices and likes. And perhaps most surprisingly of all, I learned that I

really like the color pink.