<p>Hello, I wrote this essay a few weeks ago and I thought it was good then…but now I’m having second thoughts. Does it say enough about me? Grammar mistakes? Is it too much like a poem? Any feedback would be great. Thanks in advance.</p>
<p>Title: My Invisible Masks
I live in masquerade. I’m living through a festival where the people around me are only who I perceive them to be and I am only what others perceive me to be. It has become a reality where self-identity is lost and I am only beginning to find out who I am behind my assortment of imaginary masks.
Right now in the elegant ballroom, as I speak with my mother, elder sister, and teachers, I am wearing my Hard-Working mask. It is the mask they, themselves, have constructed for me. The mask is mainly yellow with sophisticated eyes that show failure, success, and dreams, and maybe large round glasses and a feather quill pen sticking up on the side. It is the mask in which I wish to show them how much of an adult I’ve become because of them and how much I am like them. The mask that says, “Here I am as you have made me! Your hard work has paid off.” My mother, in particular, have struggled for many years to be my mother and father. I hope to live up to her expectations and with this mask, I feel I have.
I hear the music coming alive and then poof, a synchronized dance is forming under the chandelier. My mother, sister, and teachers leave me to join the dance and I am left at the dark corner of the ballroom. I am now wearing my Timid mask. It is a very plain mask, coated with black raven feathers to camouflage me into the dark corner I am familiar with. This mask holds very powerful powers that imprison me within myself, and its only vulnerability is confidence.
The dance ends and I join my family and friends to play games. We laugh and everything feels so free and endless. This is how I know I’m wearing my Confident mask. It is the most beautiful out of my collection of masks, with feathers of every color imaginable and a look that brings happiness to and around the one who wears it. This is the mask that fuels my perseverance, that places no boundaries ahead of me only behind me, and opens doors to opportunity.
The night has ended and I head home with my family. I reach for my face to take off the masks that I have put on throughout the night, but I cannot find them. I realize that my imaginary masks are really invisible, they are real and what I make it out to be. The masks took seventeen years in the making, meticulously sculpted by my family, friends, and teachers who have greatly influenced me. Without them, I would be hidden in the dark corners of the universe, plain and powerless. My family, friends, and teachers made me who I am today. However, whether I be hard-working, timid, or confident, I am still in control of who I am and I can be anyone.</p>