Journal #15

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Journal #15:

This week we discussed the poem “We Wear the Mask” by Paul Laurence Dunbar. For this journal, explore your mask. What does it say? What does it hide? Who built it?

A= I would say that I have a pretty "ehh" mask. I always have been pressured by my parents (especially my mom) that I have to be tougher because that's the only way that I will have a chance to make it in life and to achieve what I want. This has developed over a long time because I have always been scared to look bad to others. When I was younger, in my old elementary I was called 'gay' because I wasn't interested into many of the things the other boys liked. This made me have to act more manly and get into sports heavily. I truly love sports and it's maybe my favorite things in the world, but I forcefully pushed myself into learning it because I was scared of getting those comments like that (at the time, now I don't care since I know I'm not). My mask would say "normal" because I have also received many people saying that I'm weird but it truly is hard to not "act" weird because one thing that truly makes me happy is to make others laugh at either my jokes or stupidity. I don't really hide from anything anymore because I have many lovely people around me to shape me who I am (for the better) and I am truly blessed to be me.  (: