Purple by Jordyn White

Purple

           I was always called "different" as a child.  No one could understand why I was the way I was, so they titled me.  I never liked fairies or sparkles like the other girls, no.  I know it's 2019 and people are more progressive, but I feel as if I grew up in what was last "traditionalist" generation.  Everyone dressed their little girls in pink and their little boys in blue.  That was the way it was.  I grew up in purple, my own special combination of both gender norms.

            When we went to Disney for the first time that I remembered, I was around three or four.  We did not go for the princesses, but rather the pirates.  You see, I had an obsession with Pirates of the Caribbean, a trait that has carried through my infancy and into my young adulthood.  I wanted to be Jack Sparrow.  I didn't ever see myself wearing a dress, but I definitely could see myself with a trusty sword in one hand and a compass in the other.

            That same year after a summer of exploring, Halloween came along.  It was my time to shine as whatever I wanted.  My parents, expecting such a situation with naming me something androgynous like "Jordyn," told me I could be whatever I wanted to be.  This message was repeated throughout my life.  However, in this situation what I wanted to be was a werewolf.  I got blessed with just the right type of parents--they nurtured my oddities and allowed me to be uniquely myself.  Halloween day, I show up to school outfitted from head to toe in fur.  In contrast to all the Disney princesses, I was a sight for sore eyes.  Imagine what those poor teachers must have been thinking!

            My young childhood was great and all, but once I reached six, I was a monster.  My house is settled on the land of an abandoned farm, the perfect environment for a child such as myself.  I could (and would every day) catch frogs in the man-made pond, torture snakes that would hide underneath spare boards, and eat all the insects I wanted.  I grew up outdoors in the wild, never to be domesticated.  It was exactly what I needed.  I could be free and explore all I wanted without leaving the confines of my property.  Before I was born, my parents painted my room purple with designs of dragonflies and frogs.  I couldn't think of a more fitting design for the room I'd be living in for the next 18 years of my life.

            Sure, my childhood was unconventional, but in all the right ways.  I grew up with all the support and freedom a young girl needs, and it shaped my life.  I grew up purple, a little different from the rest.

        

Guess which one is me??? Circa 2008