For most of my life, I have felt anonymous. The first time I ever felt anonymous was at home. I come from a big family, I’ve got my two parents and my 3 older sisters. I am the youngest. Being the youngest, my opinion is often overlooked. I cannot narrow it down to one moment. There would just be a constant reminder I was. There was no malicious intent on my family’s side. As the youngest, they always tried to protect me and for this reason, I was left out of family discussions, felt left out when I didn’t understand the jokes they talked about. The age gap between my sisters and me is 5 years and up. So it took a while for me and them to catch up; for me to be able to not be anonymous in their eyes or mine.

Another time in my life I’ve felt anonymous was during the last two years of high school. But this time it was by choice. I wanted to be isolated, because of how I was feeling, but it didn’t mean I wasn’t noticing what I was doing. By making myself anonymous I was allowing myself to lose my friends, family. I don’t think becoming anonymous by choice is something anyone would want to do. I have never felt more alone during then, and it was me doing it to myself.