Mean Girls (Short Story)

Reader submitted fictional story by Nadiyah:

Have you ever been in a situation where you finally learned the hard way that there are more important things to life than material things? and when you learned this, it was too late?

Growing up as a young girl, I've always had long, thick, kinky-curly hair. My hair was a mixture between my parents’ textures. I was always the envy of many girls because I had naturally long hair and by the time I was in the 6th grade, I was already the most popular girl at school. I was the ringleader of a clique of four other girls and all of the other girls wanted to be one of us. Even though half of the girls in my group had bad attitudes and were rude, that did not matter. What mattered was that you had to be pretty and must have naturally pretty hair. Of course, we dressed in the latest fashions and were the dream girl of every boy in school. Our favorite past time was to make fun of all the "ugly" girls who had "bad" hair and we did this every single day.

My clique continued until we all parted ways and went on to go away to college. But through out my hair clique days, there were various girls who I allowed into the group and kicked out. One time, I had to kick my friend Tiesha out of the group in the eleventh grade. She had long and pretty relaxed hair and that was highly maintained. One day, she went for a relaxer touch-up, her hair stylist was not available and someone else did her hair. The person who did it, left the chemical in too long and poor Tiesha's hair fell out. The next day she came to school crying, hoping to find support from her good friends of the hair clique. Instead, we dismissed her from the group and stopped talking to her. I believed that looks were extremely important and she did not have what it took anymore to be one of us. She was quickly replaced by the new pretty girl in school, Della.

Within the first week of knowing each other, Della and I became the best of friends and were inseparable. Tiesha became a social outcast because we picked on her all of the time. Della and I did everything together and we even went away to the same college and were roommates freshmen year. Freshmen year of college was similar to high school because Della and I became popular again instantly. We made lots of new friends and pledged a sorority. I was in college only to make my parents happy since my real dream in life was to become a model. Once in college, I started modeling at university fashion shows and eventually worked my way up to participating in shows in the city.

My life made a big change during my sophomore year. Out of luck, I was discovered by a modeling agency at a big fashion show. By my sophomore year of college, I had a modeling contract and was finally pursuing my dream. Della and I were still the best of friends and now had our new clique filled with "pretty" girls who had great hair like us. I was very happy with life and believed that everything great was happening to me because of my looks.

One morning during the end of semester my sophomore year, I woke up not feeling like myself. I went to class and then to modeling practice afterwards. I was getting weird pains and was unable to walk on the catwalk properly. I still pushed myself and eventually collapsed on stage. I was immediately brought to the emergency room. Later on that night, I found out the worst news that I've ever had to endure. Unfortunately, I had acute myeloid leukemia cancer. The cancer was caught at a stage 2, which was pretty early so it could be fought, but with drastic measures. My only treatment option was chemo with radiation.

For the first time in my life, I realized that there were more important things in life than looks. I wanted to live so badly and survive cancer that I sacrificed losing my hair to chemo. I had to drop out of school and move back home in order to heal. At first, I did not want to do chemo at all in fair of losing my hair. However, I started to feel really weak and realized that saving my life was more important than hair. I learned the hard way that there are much more important things in life than looks and hair.

After the chemo treatment, I had to have radiation in order to rid the cancer out of my body for good. When all the treatment was done, I had no hair but did not even care. I was just happy to be alive! I lost the modeling contract due to my illness and was upset at first, but eventually got over it. I realized that I wanted to do something meaningful with my life instead of a career, which solely depended on my looks. During my healing process, I really needed the support of my friends but they all turned against me, even Della. Della decided not to stay friends with me anyway since I lost my hair and couldn't be a part of her clique. I, of course, was really hurt and felt bad for all the people in my entire life who I've been mean to. I decided to try to find and contact all of the people who I've been mean to and apologize to each and every one of them. The first person I contacted was Tiesha and she was really sorry to hear about my cancer. She automatically forgave me and was the only friend I had throughout my healing process. She was there for me and helped me with my needs.

After the radiation, I was cured for good and decided to go back to school. Instead of going back away for college, I had to resume my education at a university that was close to home. I decided to get my bachelors and to then get a masters degree in public health policy. My head was bald and it took a few months for me to grow a small fro. I embraced what I had and never wore any wigs or hats. I learned to love other things about myself and other things in life than looks and hair. I made new friends and chose them based on who they were on the inside and as a person, no matter what they looked like. After the cancer fled my body, it took 2 years for my hair to grow back to how it was before I got sick. I am truly blessed to have it back and whenever it grows really long, I get it cut and donate it to Locks of love. By donating my hair to other cancer patients, I hope to impact the lives of others who are suffering. There are more important things in life than long flowing hair.