Personal Narrative: Turning Points In My Life

I’ve heard it said that you can’t have a great story without a great beginning. Apparently, it’s impossible to have a decent story marked by ordinary things. Whoever said that has obviously never lived life, because all the best stories of my life have started with the terrifyingly mundane. This particular one begins with a skateboard. It’s funny isn’t it; how the turning points in our lives can be marked by something so mundane. Turning points should begin with rockets, or with fireworks, or with a fancy billboard signaling that this, right here, is about to open an entirely new chapter in your life. But what you get is a skateboard,and a couple of words, and before you know it your life has been changed forever. That’s the way Alex came …show more content…
Even after the lessons ended, we kept meeting more and more often, eventually spending nearly all our time together. It turned out that her family attended the same church as mine, and were very nearly the same kind of crazy. We were both homeschooled, but while I was the oldest of many, she was an only child. Our parents were both religious, but hers were relatively laid back, while mine… not so much. It’s difficult to explain our exact dynamic, how close we actually were. When her father got falsely diagnosed with lung cancer, I was the person she told. She was the first person I came out to. I’d never been to public school, and I didn’t go to church if I could help it. I think she was the first friend I ever actually had, the first person who started to find out how bad things were starting to get at my house. I did make other friends starting that year, in many other interesting ways, but she was the first. A lot of people thought we were dating, but it was never like that between us; Even though we were the same age, Alex was the cool older sister I’d never known I wanted. She’s the one who helped my chop my hair from the already-shortened shoulder length to what I affectionately refer to as my ‘emo-boy’ cut. I had three amazing years with Alex- three years with one of the most amazing people I’ve ever had the privilege to …show more content…
That might not seem like such a big deal- lots of girls have girlfriends, some people are rude about it, but nothing serious, right? Not exactly. I think a lot of people forget exactly how recent this acceptance thing is even now, nevermind two years ago. Alex’s family was cool and everything, compared to mine, but I guess that they drew the line at their daughter’s having a girlfriend. They didn’t forbid her from going out or anything- on the contrary, they encouraged her to get out as much as possible, in the hopes that she’d magically ‘become’ straight. They did, however, forbid her from seeing her girlfriend, who we’re just going to call Jessica. Of course, forbidding a teenager from seeing their partner never did anything except make them more determined to see each other. Alex started sneaking out after dark to see Jessica, not telling anyone where she was going. We’d meet up sometimes and talk after, but she didn’t want anyone to be able to tell her parents where she was going. One of their favourite places to go was Shadyside Park, because it was relatively quiet and wasn’t anywhere people like her parents were likely to be. One of those nights, when we were supposed to meet up after, Alex showed up without Jessica. Her face was kind of torn up and she looked really upset. She didn’t want to talk about it, but I kept pushing her and prodding her and eventually I got it out of her; Jessica was with her earlier that night, until these guys