3.
I’m hiding behind the swing door of the dressing room when I text my mom just one word: “Traumatizing!” I’m on a bra-shopping expedition with my grandmother, and just in case it’s not abundantly clear, this trip was Not. My. Idea. Bra shopping has always been shrouded in mystery for me, and growing up in a household with two moms and two younger sisters hasn’t helped one bit: One of my moms doesn’t wear bras; the other proudly proclaims that her bras are older than me. A two-mom family without the faintest idea what a teenage girl needs—par for the course around here.
So when my 78-year-old grandmother volunteered to take me bra shopping, my moms jumped at the chance. Here I was with my frugal grandmother, outlet-shopping among the racks of intimates that aren’t sized quite right, that have too much padding or too little…You can see my predicament, and it’s no surprise that my younger self was confused by the words “wire-free,” “concealing petals,” “balconette.”
The saleswoman called to my grandmother from across the store, “What cup size is she?”
“I don’t know,” my grandmother screamed back. “Can you measure her?”
Measure me? They have got to be kidding.
“I just don’t want her to feel different,” I heard my grandmother say later that day. “Kids this age can be so mean.”
I love my grandmother, but she believes the world is harsh and unforgiving, and she thinks that the only path to happiness is fitting in. My grandmother had taken me bra shopping in a last-ditch attempt to make me “normal” because I was entering 9th grade at Deerfield in a few weeks, and she worried that I would stick out worse than the underwire of a bargain basement bra.
It’s true—I’m not your typical Deerfield student. I’m a day student with lesbian moms who have several fewer zeros on their bank account balance than typical Deerfield parents. I’m the kid with a congenital foot deformity, which means I literally can’t run, who will never be able to sprint across campus from classroom to classroom. I’m the kid with life-threatening food allergies to milk and tree nuts who can’t indulge in the pizza at swim team celebrations or the festive cake and ice cream during advisory meetings.
But fitting in was my grandmother’s worry, not mine. What my grandmother didn’t consider is that there’s no single way to fit in. I might be two minutes later to class than the sprinters, but I always arrive. I might have to explain to my friends what “having two moms” means, but I’ll never stop being thankful that Deerfield students are eager to lean in and understand. I may not be able to eat the food, but you can count on me to show up and celebrate.
While I can’t run, I can swim and play water polo, and I can walk the campus giving Admissions tours. My family might not look like everyone else’s, but I can embrace those differences and write articles for the school newspaper or give a talk at “School Meeting,” sharing my family and my journey. Some of my closest friendships at Deerfield have grown from a willingness on both sides to embrace difference.
On one of the first days of 9th grade, I sat down to write a “Deerfield Bucket List”—a list of experiences that I wanted to have during my four years in high school, including taking a Deerfield international trip and making the Varsity swim team. That list included thirteen items, and I’m eleven-thirteenths of the way there, not because I have the right bra, but because I’ve embraced the very thing that my grandmother was afraid of. Bra shopping is still shrouded in mystery for me, but I know that I am where I should be, I’m doing work that matters to me, and fitting in rarely crosses my mind.
点评：
Orlee在文书中分享她正在买胸罩，身边还有溺爱她的祖母，出乎意料地将我们带入了她勇敢选择分享尴尬、“令人痛苦”的时刻。
几秒钟后，我们还认识了她自称对时尚一窍不通的两位妈妈。这只是第一段，我已经喜欢上她了。
平均每篇文章只有几分钟的阅读时间，招生读者会想知道这篇文章的走向。
一开始，我们就知道Orlee的祖母对世界的看法是“严厉和无情的”，这使她保护Orlee，而她提出的解决方案是帮助 Orlee融入社会，这样她就会被视为“正常人”。
起初，我们认为这篇文章是关于青少年焦虑的，但出乎意料的是，Orlee很快让我们知道，她祖母对她融入社会的担忧既不无道理，也并非毫无根据。
Orlee透露，她患有先天性足部畸形，这限制了她跑步的能力，并且患有严重的、危及生命的食物过敏症。
现在她引起了我们的注意，她巧妙地编织了她日常生活的更多快照，展示了她如何勇敢地选择在困难时刻出现。
她直截了当的描述并不具有操纵性，相反，她的态度是乐观的。我们了解到她的毅力，以及她总是迎接挑战。
她展示了她如何找到为自己创造空间的方法，以便她能够被包容，她理所当然地不会为她的身体挑战请求许可或道歉。
考虑到其他人可能因为她明显的身体缺陷而迅速将她归类，Orlee立即将重点放在了她在校园中可以贡献的众多优势上，并提供了几个清晰的例子来说明她如何全身心投入并克服他人的负面看法。
她向我们讲述了她作为一名团队成员丰富学校的无数方法，以免我们陷入低估她能力的不幸陷阱。
Orlee设定了鼓舞人心的人生目标，她可爱的高中愿望清单也即将完成。这位学生不怕努力，不怕实现，她过着最 好的生活，我发现自己为她欢呼！
这篇文书之所以成功，是因为它告诉我们Orlee 是谁，她是如何成长起来的，她重视朋友和队友，并将把同样的能量带给她的大学社区。
她聪明、好奇、自信、善良。她设定目标，规划愿景来支持她的世界观。“她很少考虑融入。”这是她的品牌故事，我来这里就是为了这个！
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