To be honest with you the stranger in me is no stranger. The stranger in me is more like my friend because it protects me from the cruel world. When I was 4 or 5 years old I had depression because I would see the other kids running and hugging their mom. My mom left when I was 2 years old and seeing those kids with their mom made me feel left left out. During the time I had depression I wouldn't smile, I wouldn't talk, and I wouldn't eat. I even remember my dad and grandma waking me up at night because I was crying in my sleep. After a while of being depressed I finally started to talk and eat again but the one hing that didn't come back was my smile. Everyone always asked me "Sofia how come you never smile for me?" "Are you ok?"but the truth is nobody in my family knew i had depression and I didn't either till recently. Every picture that was taken of me as a kid had a forced smile. I haven't smiled a genuine smile since forever. Growing up the only mother figure me and my sister had was our grandma. She meant everything to us, she was my rock went I felt upset, she made me feel safe and loved. She was the only person that I will bring my mask down too. Ever since I had the mask I started not to care about anything, I started to dress in dark clothing, I started listening to music I don't normally listen too, I started to see the world as a dark, cruel place, and I started to question my place in this world. I didn't see the point of life because everyone was putting in my head that success, marriage, and having a family was the goal in life, but for me I see all of that as pointless goals because I don't want to get married, and I don't want to have kids. Growing up was hard because my family was telling me how to live my life and they kept pushing me to go to college. Not one decision in my life was my own, and with them pushing and pushing it started to make me feel ashamed of my family and question where I belong. I kept the same image every year because if I let this mask down completely I have a feeling that I won't like the real me. I consider my mask the real me because over time I started to become a cold, mean, aggressive, and introverted person. I even don't like my picture getting taken because what I see is someone who is lost and I refuse to showcase that person. I believe in natural beauty and also that pictures don't define who you are as a person. Don't get me wrong I love myself as a person but half the time I'm looking at these pictures and I think "Is that what we are really supposed to look like?" when I keep seeing these pictures pop up on social media I'm truly disgusted on how these girls are portraying themselves. I also hate the fact that people keep telling what I should become. Everyone wants me to be a nurse but what about what I want. I want to be a Marine Biologist, or study Demonology, but my family kept saying no because I'll have to go far away. Well that's why I chose these types of professions. I want to be as far away from my family and other people as possible. I want to be free not caged in like an animal in one place for the rest of my life. If my family doesn't accept that then they will lose me forever, but they always seem to stick their nose where it doesn't belong, "Oh Nick (my dad) when is Sofia and Evthalia (my sister) going to college?" "Oh Vasili (my grandpa) let me talk to one of the girls about college." Whenever they call I tell my grandpa and dad I am not talking to them. Whenever I see them at church I try to keep my anger in as they talk to me about college. In reality I wonder "Why do they care?" "It's none of their business." "Let them just worry about their kids and grand-kids." I know they want whats best for me and Evthalia but its our life let us live it the way we want to live it.