Blog #2 - I Once Was Miss America

Although Sweet Valley and the Wakefield sisters were not real, within reading the second paragraph of I Once was Miss America, I could relate my hometown to Sweet Valley. I am from a little suburban town near Fort Lauderdale called Weston, Florida. The architecture who designed Weston was actually the same architecture who designed Disney World. I want you to picture Disney, its seemingly always groomed landscape; this is what Weston is. Not only are the lawns always perfect, the people are always put together. Everyone is indeed fit and fancy, with 16 year-olds driving around in Porsches and Mercedes Benz. The relation continued when the author began to describe the perfect twin sisters, as this describes everyone in my town. We all know girls who seem flawless, from the outside at least. In Weston, the kids who are considered bad would never do something completely immoral, only something to sneak behind their parents back for a little thrill. This is similar to how Gray described the twin sisters in Sweet Vally.

Reading is a nice getaway for people to become what they are not, just like what Roxane Gay did with the twins. Every since I could remember, I always wondered what it would be like to be a character in a book or show. I still do. I also love to take the personality quizzes that identify people with a certain character, similar to how Gay identifies herself with Jessica. Although there is no way these quizzes could be accurate after just answering a couple of questions, I still take them and love to get the result that I am most alike my favorite character. Gay also showed the effects on a child's developing brain from the so-called popular kids. Gay, an adult, still thinks about those popular kids and readers can still feel her yearn to be apart of that group. This is commonly seen. Children are sensitive, and to have the popular kids bringing down the others has long-lasting effects such as self confidence issues.

Gay also touched on how human brains build events up in their head, and are often let down. Everyone can relate to this, whether it be senior prom or that movie that just came out. Gay’s article touched upon a plethora of points that I see in my day-to-day life.