Paranoid Schizophrenia

Shayla Morreale, Grade 12

House of Mirrors

RAD, Grade 11

The mirror is my enemy I see myself, but I don’t I see a distorted image of what used to be me but now is just an aberration. I look into the mirror and feel trapped inside with no escape from the perverted reflection of a person I am not. I am healthy, I am strong, and I have nothing to be ashamed of. My brain might know that, but sometimes it forgets. It forgets that a teenage girl isn’t supposed to be able to wrap her hands around her waist and touch her fingertips. Forgets that seeing your ribs and having limbs so nimble that they snap isn’t healthy. Forgetting because it sees all these girls around me who are all smaller than me. They are shorter and thinner and everything I wish I was. The house of mirrors surrounding me with reflections that look like me, but is really just a giant with my face. A me that is really not me but an overweight, porcine version of a me that never was and never will be A house of mirrors where anywhere I look I see my twisted reflection and I hate it I hate wearing clothes because I am a size eleven and not a size two, because I am a large instead of a small I stand in front of the mirror, looking at everything I hate about myself, my stretch marks, my stomach, my legs, and just wonder what it's like to be smaller The misleading, unbalanced perversion of me that the mirror shows is just a contortion, a version of me that doesn’t exist anywhere but my mind But sometimes I forget

The Story That Is True

Phoenix Goodman, Grade 9

This isn’t any story, it's about how it came true. A true story comes from the heart; the heart is where it all begins. The beginning of true happiness. Happiness is the key to survival. Survival can come true when you think of others when others think of you and how kind you are. People see me as an outcast, but I see the true good in people's hearts. They just see me as someone who is crazy, but I am not crazy because no matter how hard, I will ever try to be perfect. They will always see me as the “crazy kid,” and I am not a crazy person because I care about people very much, in fact I care too much about them than I think of myself I want things to go back to how they were because I hate being made fun of That doesn’t change the thing I have planned for my future My future is with family and friends not with jerks who only care about themselves This is just the beginning of something incredible That something is just the beginning of life Life can turn You can turn first by changing the life that you had, but no matter how hard you try there is always someone who will count on you for the same thing that I have asked of you I have family who care very much about me because they are there for me I have many people who care about me So never give up on yourself or others