How it ends

I'd like to think that I've made an impression on this city; or, at least, that this city has made an impression on me. I've been here for long enough that I've started to recognize some of the main players. There's the guy with the accordion, who is on a different street corner every time I see him. The tall man with two prosthetic legs who I always see walking down the street. That African Immigrant who always tries to shake my hand and sell me books on the way to school. The guy in the newsstand who is there from sun up to sun down. The lady at the Cafe by school who hasn't liked me ever since I came in and was talking to her son. The man that works at Il Teatro who's name I still don't remember even though he gives me free champagne every time I order a Margherita pizza to go. And then there's the woman at the flower stand, the security guard at the bank I pass when I'm going to teach my kids, the fans who stand outside the soccer stadium waiting for the players to come out of practice, and the lady at the 99 cent store who I haven't seen in a while.

Everyone has their place. Everyone is somebody to this city, and I guess it's that way with most things. It makes me wonder who I am? I'm probably seen as the crazy girl who's always wearing flip flops in the rain. Yup, sounds about right.

It even works the same way with the kids at my school. There's the class clown, the guy who's always late, the girl who is pretty on the outside but not so nice on the inside. The girl who tries to fit in, the guy who tries to fit in. The quiet ones who are really funny when you get to know them, the person who tries to direct everything, the Player.

Even though we all know each other better by now, it all comes down to superlatives.

It's funny, though, I know that I'm more than my "title." I'm more than "biggest flirt," more than the girl who wears flip flops. I'm sure everyone else feels the same way too. It makes me think that maybe we should take more time to get to know people before we put a label on them. Before we classify them as something and refuse to see them as anything more than that. People don't fit neatly inside of a box, it doesn't work that way. And maybe we should start giving people more credit instead of being so quick to judge.

Yeah.