My teacher asked why I never talk about my family and I accidentally made the whole class cry. — Transcript

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1. 0:00My teacher asked why I never talk about
2. 0:01my family, and I accidentally made the
3. 0:02whole class cry. I had a system for
4. 0:03family assignments. Whenever a teacher
5. 0:05said, "Write about your parents," or
6. 0:06"Bring in a family photo," or "Make a
7. 0:08family tree," I would write about a
8. 0:09fictional family I'd been building since
9. 0:10third grade. Mom was a veterinarian
10. 0:11named Linda. Dad was an engineer named
11. 0:13Phil. I had a golden retriever named
12. 0:14Captain, and a little sister named Bree,
13. 0:16who was annoying but lovable. I had
14. 0:17their whole backstory memorized better
15. 0:18than most TV shows because I'd been
16. 0:19performing the Linda and Phil show for 7
17. 0:21years, and not a single teacher had ever
18. 0:23questioned it. The real answer was too
19. 0:24complicated, and the fake one made
20. 0:25everyone comfortable, especially me. So,
21. 0:27when my junior year English teacher,
22. 0:28Mrs. Adler, assigned a personal essay
23. 0:30called "Where I Come From," I pulled out
24. 0:32the Linda and Phil script, like always.
25. 0:33Wrote three pages about Phil teaching me
26. 0:35to ride a bike, and Linda making
27. 0:36terrible pancakes on Sunday mornings.
28. 0:37Got an A minus, except Mrs. Adler wrote
29. 0:39a note at the bottom that said,
30. 0:40"Beautifully written, but I don't
31. 0:41believe a single word. See me after
32. 0:43class." Nobody had ever said that
33. 0:44before. I sat in front of her desk, and
34. 0:45she said, "You're the best writer in
35. 0:46this class by a mile, Wren, and that
36. 0:48essay is completely hollow. Who are
37. 0:49Linda and Phil?" I said they were my
38. 0:50parents. She said, "Your emergency
39. 0:51contact is listed as Dolores Navarro,
40. 0:53relationship foster mother. You've had
41. 0:54four different emergency contacts in 3
42. 0:56years." She said, "I'm not going to
43. 0:57force you, but the assignment is called
44. 0:58'Where I Come From,' not 'Where I Wish I
45. 1:00Came From.'" If you ever want to write
46. 1:01the real version, I'll read it. I went
47. 1:02home and sat on the floor of the room
48. 1:04Dolores let me sleep in. It wasn't
49. 1:05really mine. None of them were ever
50. 1:06really mine. I'd been in foster care
51. 1:07since I was 2, seven homes in 15 years.
52. 1:09Some were fine, some were not fine. I
53. 1:10don't rank them because ranking trauma
54. 1:11feels like giving it a performance
55. 1:13review. I had a garbage bag under the
56. 1:14bed with everything I owned, not because
57. 1:16Dolores was bad, she was actually
58. 1:17decent, but garbage bags were what I
59. 1:18knew. You learn to pack light when
60. 1:20people can give you back like a library
61. 1:21book. I started writing at 11 p.m. and
62. 1:22didn't stop until 4 in the morning. No
63. 1:23Linda, no Phil, no Captain, no Sunday
64. 1:25pancakes. I wrote about the garbage bag.
65. 1:27I wrote about being 9 and a foster
66. 1:28mother returning me the day before
67. 1:30Christmas because her biological
68. 1:31daughter didn't want to share her toys.
69. 1:32I wrote about learning to cook at 7
70. 1:33because one house didn't feed us after 6
71. 1:35p.m. I wrote about the family tree
72. 1:37assignment in fifth grade, where I drew
73. 1:38a tree with no branches, and my teacher
74. 1:39thought I just didn't try. I wrote about
75. 1:41how I built Linda and Phil because I
76. 1:42needed parents who stayed, even if they
77. 1:43only existed on paper. I turned it in,
78. 1:45and immediately wanted to steal it back.
79. 1:46At the end of the week, Mrs. Adler asked
80. 1:47if I'd read it out loud for open essay
81. 1:49day. I said, "Absolutely not." She said,
82. 1:50"What if I read it? I won't say your
83. 1:51name. No one has to know who wrote it."
84. 1:52I said, "Fine," because for some stupid
85. 1:54reason, I trusted this woman. Monday
86. 1:55came, and Mrs. Adler stood in front of
87. 1:57the class holding my essay. She said,
88. 1:58"I'm going to read an anonymous piece
89. 2:00from someone in this room. I need you to
90. 2:01just listen." She started reading. A few
91. 2:02kids were on their phones. Grady in the
92. 2:03back was drawing on his desk. But, by
93. 2:05the second paragraph, the phones were
94. 2:06down. By the third, when she read the
95. 2:07part about being returned the day before
96. 2:09Christmas, Grady stopped drawing. By the
97. 2:10time she got to the family tree with no
98. 2:11branches, the girl in front of me,
99. 2:13Sutton, had her hand over her mouth.
100. 2:14Mrs. Adler's voice cracked on the
101. 2:15paragraph about Linda and Phil. She had
102. 2:17to stop and take a breath before she
103. 2:18read the line, "I built parents out of
104. 2:19paper because the real ones didn't want
105. 2:21to build me." When she finished, nobody
106. 2:22spoke. Then Sutton turned around and
107. 2:23looked at me. I don't know how she knew.
108. 2:24Maybe my face gave it away. Maybe I was
109. 2:26the only one not looking at anyone. She
110. 2:27whispered, "Is that you?" I didn't
111. 2:28answer, but my eyes were already
112. 2:30spilling over. Then Grady said from the
113. 2:31back of the room, "Whoever wrote that is
114. 2:32the strongest person I've ever heard
115. 2:33of." Sutton reached back and grabbed my
116. 2:35hand and didn't let go for the rest of
117. 2:36the period. After class, 11 kids waited
118. 2:38in the hallway. Grady handed me a note
119. 2:39that said, "You don't need fake parents.
120. 2:41You've got 27 of us now." I still carry
121. 2:42that note, except it's in a suitcase
122. 2:44now, not a garbage bag. Dolores bought
123. 2:45it for me the day I told her about the
124. 2:47essay. She said, "People who are staying
125. 2:48don't live out of garbage bags."