Martin 1 Gisselle Martin Torrance High School Sophomore Visions of Unity Contest Short Story I Am A Star I look over at my phone for the 6th time in 15 minutes, it reads “12:58 a.m.” Ugh. “Nowhere near morning”, I think to myself. I roll over and try to force myself to sleep. Yet, every time I’d come so close, the Thoughts would slip into my mind. These pestering Thoughts surround my brain, forcing every ounce of will to sleep out. Restlessness, anxiety, and panic fill my body, and the only words I can muster are, “I want to go outside.” I sit up, outside? I think to myself, “Rayne. It’s almost 1 a.m. and you want to go outside?”. I try to snap myself back into reality and convince the Thoughts that going outside is not an option. But the panic comes back and I begin to get claustrophobic. I need to get out! I need to get out! Quickly I pull open the blinds and open the window. Finally, I can breathe. The cold air rushes into my lungs and I’m able to relax. As I look out my window into empty dark streets, something glistening catches my eye. A Star. Martin 2 A single star, lighting up the night sky. As I stare at this single star my mind begins to run. Thoughts about school, friends, and life begin to run through my brain like wild horses. Then it hits me, I am lonely. How could I miss this? How could I not notice that not a single person has checked up on me? How could I not notice that every conversation I have with someone, is one that I begin? The dark of the night begins to surround me. I am alone. Then it catches my eye again. The single star. The wild horses running loose in my mind come to a stop. A single thought appears… I wonder if stars get lonely. If you think about it, stars burn for billions of years, their sole purpose to burn from within. Yet their only interaction with other objects, are our words that drift through the air towards them. Admiring their beauty and power. But I’m sure they get lonely, with their closest star friends being lightyears away. Stars and I have a lot in common that way. We long for a friend near us, someone, or something to complete us. Yet, it never shows up. We have this natural gravitational pull that attracts people towards us, but the burning within us causes them to push away. We have so much build-up, so much fusion happening within our fiery cores that someday we’re just going to bust. We’re going to implode within our fiery cores and bring everything with us. When stars die, they become black holes, filled with nothing but sadness and a pull longing for light to arrive. Yet, when the light finally appears, it’s just darkness in disguise. Whether it be a person using you for their dark agenda or a nearby planet. Stars and I pull them in with welcome arms and their darkness surrounds us. Why can’t people just be kind? Why can’t I just be… accepted? Is it too much to ask for unification among people? Is it selfish of me to wish that people would treat me equally, even if I am from out of this world? Atoms contain a nucleus filled with protons and neutrons, that nucleus is surrounded by electrons spinning around it at speeds I do not know. Yet, despite atoms being mostly space, they are more unified than the beings they make up. Stars are different in that way. Their nuclear fusion fuses atoms. Unifying them to create something new. Stars and I have a lot in common that way. We bring people together. Stars and I are misunderstood. We both long for happiness that stays. The happiness that doesn’t leave whenever the pull gets too hard. Stars and I want to be accepted, we want to be happy too. We’re tired of being alone. We’re tired of the darkness creeping behind us and stripping our light away. Stars and I were created to light up the world around us and bring joy. Stars and I have a lot in common that way. A car passes by and I snapback from my episode of daydreams, and just… breathe. I look up at the single star once more… and as cliche, as it might sound, I talked to a star that day. I whispered, “I see you. You are seen and I am just like you. You are not alone…”. Everything that I wished people would’ve said to me, I said to that single star. Sleep creeped out of its hiding place and I settled back under my covers. I muttered a silly nursery rhyme that my mother told me when I was younger, “Starlight, Star Bright, The first star, I see tonight. I wish I may, I wish I might, Have the wish I wish tonight.” I closed my eyes real tight and whispered, “I wish for acceptance and light.”. And with that, I drifted off to sleep. Remembering in the back of my mind that… I am a Star.