My Favorite Beauty

The 1991 movie My Girl tells the story of 11-year-old Vada Sultenfuss who, having lost her mother at birth , lives with her dementia-ridden grandmother and her job-oriented father in the funeral parlour that he owns and operates. The story follows Vada, an extreme hypochondriac who has many strange misconceptions about death, through a variety of life-changing experiences, including the engagement of her father and the devastating loss of her best friend, Thomas Jay. Through these experiences, the audience witnesses Vada’s social, emotional, and intellectual growth, as well as her changing views of death.

My parents hired painters to paint the walls grey to match the pink and grey theme I had going on in the room. My dad bought me a grey bookcase to match the theme of my room because he knew how much I loved reading. I did not ask for a new bookcase, but he said it was a “moving in” gift. The bookcase was quite larger than my old one, with 5 horizontal shelves to store all my books. My room was on the smaller side, but it made me very cozy. As I lit a Lake Sunset candle in my room, I started to unpack some of my boxes. First came all my movie collections that I put under the tv stand, then all my makeup, then my books. As I started to put the books away, ‘The Berenstain Bears' Moving Day’ fell off the stand and to the ground. As I picked up the book, page 12 was open. The page read, “I hated the process of moving. But after the first day of school, everything was fine. I am happy we moved because I have meet new people and have had made new memories.” My mind started to clear up. My mom used to read this book to me every night before I went to bed. I would never have known that this would relate so much to my life now. I started school yesterday and I have already met so many cool people. Everyone was so welcoming and this girl named Rachel even let me sit at her lunch table. I think I was overreacting over the whole situation because it hasn’t been so bad. I am excited for the

The night of September 17, 2016 my mom and I were heading to the St. Cloud Mall after my volleyball tournament in Park Rapids earlier that morning. We parked in the Macy’s parking lot opposed to parking in the Scheels’ parking lot, as we usually do. When we walked in we went to the dress section as I was searching for a homecoming dress. After finding nothing, we looked at the shoes. We ended up finding a pair of shoes, but didn’t know if I could find a dress to match, so we didn’t buy them.

I rolled the cheap rental fabric of the sleeve between my fingers before walking to my dresser and pulling out my underwear. I grabbed a pair of plain boxers from the front and looked down at the boring pattern. "Might as well be a little different" I muttered, as i pulled the old drawer all the way out, feeling around for the pair of fitted boxer briefs I had secretly gotten for myself. The pale blue went well with my pale skin, the spunky girl at the store said so herself. It was one of the few acts of rebellion I had done up to that point. I still remembered how nervous I was going into the alternative store in the local mall, I shook as I looked at all the crude jokes and sexual things inside. She came up out of nowhere and asked if I needed any help. I stammered out "No, I-I'm alright thanks." She must have known I was nervous because she just smirked and said "Here let's find you a souvenir." I only nodded and followed her around the store as she asked me about what I liked, what I was into, etc. I couldn't help but stair at her amazingly colored hair, it shimmered in the dim light like a peacocks feathers; radiating out from a vibrant green, to blue, and purple. As we passed by the "sexy" underwear section of the story, my eyes landed on the pair of underwear. Right away she noticed and said "Great choice! I bet he'll love them" with a wink. I clammed up as soon as she said 'he', and of

It all started on a rainy day and in Florida, that's common. It was the second week of 5th grade and everyone was done showing there new, cute school clothes. They were back to the same thrift store clothes they had last year, but not I! I was running late because I was on the hunt for the perfect outfit! Even though it was Monday and I usually don't care at the beginning of the week, I was determined! After 30 long minutes, I finally found the perfect outfit with the perfect hairdo but all I needed were the perfect shoes to go with it!

Back when I was in elementary school, if you had the legendary 64 pack of Crayola crayons with a built in sharpener, you were basically the coolest kid in class. Whenever we colored things in, little me would always stare at the pretty colors of those fancy crayons that I never had?. I asked my mom for them every single year when we bought new school supplies and she’d always say no because they were a little overpriced. I was so jealous of the other kids that I could not take it anymore. One day, my mom and I were in CVS and she was busy buying her medication.

“Mommy, please! I did everything you wanted me to do! I cleaned my room and I even did my laundry. Now, can you please buy me that Bob the Builder truck collection.” I probably said this to my mom every time we will go shopping. My mom’s ears bled and her eyes turned red like a tomato. I got so bewitched every time I saw Star Wars action figures like Darth Vader and Luke Skywalker. I shrieked over Marvel costumes like Ironman and Captain America. I also howled out of euphoria when I had the chance to observe Lego sets of City, Star Wars, Ben 10, and Super Heroes. There was something that I was always neutral with when it came time to have fun. That was my family. I’ve always wanted to experience my entertainment by myself. My family was just

“Uhhhh,” I groaned. “When can we leave?” I asked my mom for the thousandth time. I was bored out of my mind as I trailed behind my mom and her personal shopper, LaVaughn in Bloomingdale’s. My mom and LaVaughn laughed, like they usually did when I complained. To me this wasn’t funny. I love my mom but she can go to Bloomingdale’s and shop for HOURS on end. My mom and LaVaughn kept saying things like, “Cydney, do you like this dress?” or “Cydney what do you think of the design on this shirt?” and the ever so classic, “Cydney, this would be so cute for you!” All I’d think was, “Way to be subtle mom.” When I told my mom that I wanted to hang out after school I didn’t mean trail behind her as she shops, I meant let’s eat dinner together or go to a movie.

Getting to see The Beauty Queen of Leenane at the Mark Taper Forum was an amazing experience. The show follows a mother and daughter living together in an abusive, controlling manner. Mag, the mother, is dependent on her daughter Maureen for just about everything and Maureen is not free to do what she would like to because she has her mother to take care of. Keeping this in mind, it was very interesting to see how much humor the actors found and brought out in the performance. By doing this, made the message the playwright was trying to convey more powerful by providing a strong contrast. This brilliant play is centered on the themes of mental illness, dysfunctionality and the loss of mental stability and the actors and technicians did a beautiful

As I sat there and went through all of these massive piles of clothing, it made me realize that I was very fortunate to be lucky enough to have so many different options of clothing to choose from when I was little, even though we were so rough on them.

My parents took custody of my sister’s children, which then began the chaotic day-to-day home life that usually left me in tears by bedtime. I was in middle school at the time, as a middle school aged girl I felt a whirlwind of emotions. I wanted to do things that other kids my age were doing but that wasn’t always possible. With very mentally handicap children in our home it wasn’t easy to just invite a friend over to come spend the night, not only would my mom say no but also I was far too embarrassed. I wanted to go out and eat in a restaurant like I heard my friends talking about, but no, going out to eat with my sister’s children would be very difficult because they couldn’t sit still or refrain from making loud noises in public places. I wanted my mom to take my friend and I to the movies rather than always going with a friend and their mom, but my mom was always tied down to caring for my sister’s

My first pair of black patent leather buckle shoes were so shiny. I was wearing cotton socks with lace trim that day. It was my first day of school; kindergarten. We were all sitting on the floor listening to Miss Bronk read us the story of Goldilocks and the Three Bears. Her voice was fading off in the distance as I played with the buckles on my brand new shiny shoes. I nearly jumped out of my skin when Miss Bronk harshly spoke my name. "Take your shoes off and bring them to me." She said. I just hung my head in shame. I was so embarrassed to be called out in class like that. I peeked at her though the tears in my eyes; Miss Bronk got up out of her chair and towered above me. "Give me the shoes!" she said. Unbuckling my shoes, I slipped them off my feet and handed them to her. I spent the rest of that day in school without my shoes. I never saw my pretty shoes again. After school that day I was standing out on the school portico waiting for the bus to come pick us up to take us home. I stood in line in my white cotton socks with lace tops. The kids made fun of me because I didn 't have shoes. I didn 't have nice clothes either, like the other kids did; mine were bought off the chubby girl rack at Sears and Roebuck. I didn 't have one friend. Somehow I continued to go to kindergarten for the rest of the school term. Miss Bronk never mentioned my shoes when we had our party on the last day of school. We had cupcakes and milk that day. It was fun, but I didn 't know anyone.

My earliest recollection of my own clothing is a holiday dress I wore when I was four years old. It was Christmas Day and I remember many members of my extended family visiting. My mother was busy preparing dinner and attending to our guests. My dress was black velvet above the waist and a white poufy material below the waist. I wore white socks and black patent leather shoes, my mother curled my hair using sponge curlers. I remember playing cowboys and Indians with my brother, I wore a holster on my hips with a gun over my dress and a cowboy hat. My memory recall me chasing my brother around the dining room table and also shoot at our visitors. My mother always referred to me as a “Tomboy”, I suppose this is also my earliest recollection of

She was born in a small town called McCune, Kansas where she grew up with her three brothers and four sisters; she was the second youngest of eight. Growing up, she would always tell me how she didn’t wear store bought clothes until the third grade, or how she would get up before the crack of dawn to go out to feed her bucket calf. She also told me how I would never make it living the farm life. Now a day, you can find her at Eureka City Hall working from eight to six to coming home, taking care of her family, and chasing her kids. Her name is Karen Simon, and she is my mom, an Army wife, and loving person. In 1993, she married her husband John Simon and four years later, she had her first daughter, Allison Simon, in 1997. In 2000, she had her favorite daughter, Hannah Simon, which is me. She is one of the most thoughtful people you will ever meet, and she will help her children with anything from homework to extracurricular activities projects. The first thing that comes to mind is her voice. At one point, it can soft and quiet like a small creek with the water flowing slowly, talking smoothly trying to calm her children down when they get upset. Next her voice is strong and harsh like a rapid river, going off on her children for something they didn’t do or something they did wrong.

I could not wait till I got home today; today was the awards show and my favorite actress was nominated for so many things. This actress also happened to be my best friend. Ever since high school, her and I have been unstoppable. I made sure she never quit trying to become an actress which was part of the reason she is where she is today. She had been in so many movies that came out this year and each performance as graceful as the last. Unfortunately I couldn’t attend the event with her because I had an important meeting with my boss to go to earlier in the day and wouldn’t be able to get there in time. I got home and made popcorn to go along with the show. Before I got the chance to eat any of it or even turn on the tv a knock was heard from my door. I opened it to see a bunch of my friends with food and drinks and smiles on their faces. I told them not to throw a party at my house but they seem to not listen. As they came barging in, they took up seats and then waiting for me to sit down. I sat and we turned the tv on and waited for my best friend to win all the awards she possibly could, all of which she rightfully deserved. The host of the show came to begin the show but had a confused look on her face. Something was wrong with the tv equipment and they were telling her this. Many people came and took her off the stage; a glance of a camera shot on my friend and she had a very frightening face on. What was happening? Suddenly the tv projected the entirety of a white