In Ticao, the second island of Masbate and a place filled with majestic views and nature, there lived a girl named Amry in the municipality of San Jacinto. Her family was just on an island with limited technology resources and a finite supply of materials. Nevertheless, she was still consistent in reading and even prefers this over electronic devices and toys. Due to her reading and comprehension skills, her intelligence was even more advanced. Her rich vocabulary allowed her to speak English fluently; she could even write a ten thousand-word story in one sitting—absolutely a talent worth praising. With her parents seeing this improvement, they kept supporting her without any words. “She’s an answered prayer, but even more than we wished for,” her parents would say. Well, we can all agree that Ticao’s education quality is lower than Masbate City’s education. Obviously, as parents of an intelligent child, they wanted to give Amry the quality education she deserves. After talking together as a family about this matter, they were able to come up with a decision. Amry got really excited and proceeded to pack her things; this was an opportunity she can’t miss in her lifetime.
After the longest time of preparing the papers for transferring, she finally entered her dream high school, Masbate National Comprehensive High School (MNCHS). For her, joining Comprehensive already felt surreal, so she was very enthusiastic about her first day in class. Finally, her most-awaited day has come; as expected, she entered the classroom with a bright smile on her face. She wanted to make a good impression on her new classmates, but upon entering, she felt like she wasn’t welcomed in this class; it felt like she was invisible. She was just stared at uncomfortably and weirdly by everyone in class while entering, thinking she’s an idiot for accidentally going inside a random classroom. Amry gaslighted herself at first that maybe the teacher hasn’t informed her students yet about a transferee, so she just settled herself in the corner and waited for the teacher to arrive.
She was correct for her classmates being unaware of her arrival, so she was very happy to know that her classmates would actually accept her in their class. Amry was very happy by their warm welcome; she never expected so much, but it surely exceeded her wants. Sadly, not all welcomed her, but of course she also understands the fact that she’s just a stranger for them. Despite that, she was still hoping that she could be friends with all of her classmates. To do that, she gives them time to adjust with her, and at the same time, she keeps reading to distract herself from being too petty and an attention seeker. As time passed, her classmates soon noticed that she just kept reading and rarely interacted with them; most thought that she was an anti-social, a weirdo, and a nerd, even if that wasn’t Amry’s true motive. They judged her immediately, and it got worse after they knew she came from Ticao Island, the island of Masbate that most looked down on. Due to their false judgments about Amry, they started gossiping about her.
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Upon knowing her classmate’s bad comments about her, she felt discouraged with reading, thinking it’s the cause of ruining her reputation. Even though she just wanted to be friends with them, that goal was already overtaken by false judgments and gossip. Amry never got the chance to open up or tell her true motive, so it kept the same throughout. This situation is a different kind of story from when she first got to her class; she was warmly welcomed, but now she’s the talk of town in a negative way. Amry didn’t know what to do; she thought of quitting MNCHS and her reading hobby. Unfortunately, it got worse; she sooner felt anxious, sad, and alone and now wants to stay at home rather than going to class. Clearly, her mental health was affected.
She felt hopeless of developing friends, so she just went back to reading to cope with all her emotions. She just ignored all of the bad comments and focused on herself first and with reading. Focusing with only books helped her to be at peace and find solace in it; it became her best friend. Not until one afternoon she noticed one of her classmates also reading a book in the corner. Her name was Maria; she also loves books and prefers to read them during vacant subjects rather than talking to others; she’s an introvert indeed. Amry did not hesitate to approach Maria; he color gray, and is a soft girl, and Amry then noticed that she was also very kind and mild. Their topic being about books and reading made their conversation longer; they also found out that they were very similar to each other, which felt surprising.
Their bond grew stronger; they read at the same time, shared thoughts, recommended books to each other, and had more long conversations. Reading surely did make their bond stronger; it was their way of bonding, enjoying, and having fun. It almost felt like books brought them together from the middle of a crowd and separated them in a peaceful place from the world of negative comments. After some time, with the combination of their bond, intelligence, rich vocabulary, and fluency in English, they finally had the courage to write their own story. They wanted to share their story and the essence of reading. To also motivate others to do the same and maybe even meet their soulmate in this unique way.