Memoirs of an Imperfect Angel

Hello again. :)

We've recently started a Memoir unit in my AP Lang and Comp class. Beginning, well, today, until my Memoir unit is over, I will be posting (or trying to post) a series of weekly excerpts from my projects and drafts that will come exclusively from my memoir. For now, I think I'll stick with this series title because it's an album name (I couldn't find a decent song title with the word 'memoirs' in it). If you've got a better title (that relates to a song), feel free to suggest it.

On Wednesday of last week, we began free-writing to 30-second clips of a randomized list of songs and formulating a coherent story that matched the mood of the songs. Here's my story:

Once upon a time, there was a lovely bird. The bird lived in solitude, although she was the best and brightest bird in the entire town. The bird's Elders prejudiced the outgoing, awesomely awesome bird because she "looked similar" to all the other birds they disliked. This made the glorious bird pretty ticked off. However, the Elders couldn't see the amazing qualities of diligence, honesty, and pure genius the bird possessed. The bird became belligerent, denying everything she once knew. Behind the Elders' backs, she tormented herself by answering negatively to the questions of the elders and imagining all the horrible things the Elders may have prejudged of her. She slipped into darkness, slowly losing the drive for everything that she once desired. Everything she'd once loved she now hated. Now, all she truly wanted was acceptance and love from the people she so desired to impress. Sadly, all the Elders did was ignore her talents. The Elders would toy with her emotions, complimenting and acknowledging her, then, as if out of nowhere, they'd snap like chaff beneath an animal's foot. The lovely bird, who had a beautiful crown of feathers, began plucking the feathers from her body. One by one, the feathers fell, fading away slowly into the dirt.

The feathers have yet to return.

She is now a hopeless sack of emotions, longing for real relationships with other birds. Those birds whom she used to know well hardly know who she is, and it makes the beautiful bird upset inside.

I believe somewhere, way deep (like really, REALLY deep) down inside her, the bird still possesses that drive that used to emanate from her very core. I still believe the bird is powerful and headstrong, not weak and depressed. I still think the bird's feathers will grow back. I still think the bird can fly.

Maybe we'll see. Hopefully, we'll see sooner than later.
Then again, maybe we won't.