An Unknown Reflection

One day my life changed. It was not one of the changes that come about subtly, spurred by small actions and decisions. Eventually, enough time passes that you see the ramifications of one seemingly inconsequential decision or action, like one day folding and flying a paper airplane for the first time, and then finding yourself in twenty years majoring in aerospace engineering. On the day that I speak of, it was not a subtle change, but one on a scale so large it was previously unimaginable to me. I looked in the mirror and saw a face that was not my own.

    I had been washing glue, primer, and paint off my hands after working on bringing some of my new miniatures to life. As I was rubbing my hands under the cool water everything around me changed. The bathroom was larger, the walls now a deep shade of red, the sink larger with a black faucet. The seconds it took me to realize these changes were tangible as the water still poured onto my two hands, which under further inspection were a different skin tone. I was wearing different clothes, and when I turned off the sink and looked around the room, I felt something draped across my shoulders and around my neck. When I looked up into the mirror I saw a feminine face, framed by silky black straight hair. I stepped back in shock as it began to become apparent to me that I had become someone else. 

    Upon leaving the bathroom, in complete and utter bewilderment I studied the strange place I had come to find myself in. Plants sat potted in the corners and as I continued to explore I heard a voice calling out in a language I could not understand or recognize. A man stepped out from around the corner and looked at me with a puzzled expression. He continued to talk at me but I just shook my head gently until I finally said, “I can’t understand you!” in a high-pitched voice so alien to my ears. After that, he switched to accented, but understandable English. 

I learned his name, and what he thought mine was. I tried to explain that I was not his girlfriend, but an aspiring comic book illustrator making his way through high school. He was similarly astonished at this concept and believed me because of my fluent English and hysterical shouting. 

My life became a flurry of calling my parents, flying home, meeting myself who was not really me, my family moving, and assuming a new identity at another school, maintaining a connection with my old friends through forms of social media, video games we would play online together, and the pretense of my parent moving so that I could attend a high school that would better support me and improves poor academic performance. Yes, it sucked that my friends believed that my grades were so bad my parents would move to another state, but they still relied on me for my pop culture and video game knowledge. 

That is my story, just an average teen rocketed off of their life course through some twist of fate. I have learned to live my new life as first, a girl. Second a transfer student. And third, a product of a clouded destiny I am yet to discover.