Different Identities

• Emma Russell, Grade 10, Narara Valley High School
• Short Story
• 2014

Excellence Award in the 'The Text Generation 2014' competition

I am in a British high school, but I am not British. I talk like them, eat like them and act like them down to the last detail. But I am not one of them. I look like I belong, a beautiful young lady with an intelligent mind and a gentle nature. But I don't really belong, like a fish out of water.

Wherever I go, people pay me compliments.
"Anne, you are really beautiful, you know that?"
"Anne, can you help me with our Maths questions? You're the smartest girl in class…"
"I don't know what we'd do without you, Anne. You really are a skilled young lady."
People are kind to me wherever I go. They don't know I'm different, and they can't tell that I'm different, so they treat me like I am the same as them. They all know me as Anne Collins, niece of Thomas Collins, the kind man who runs the grocery store on Baker Street. Everyone was told that my parents were ill, so I came to live with Uncle Thomas. They don't who I really am, or where I'm really from. If they knew, they would resent me and hate me, disposing of all the kindness they once showed me. That is what they would do if they found out I was not British, but German.

My mother, Uncle Thomas's only sister, is British. But no-one would care about that. They would immediately hate me because of my German father. They wouldn't see Anne Collins anymore, but see the enemy, Annaliese Bachmann. They wouldn't sympathise with me because my parents are dead. They wouldn't return any kindness I had shown them. Instead, the polite words they once used towards me would become harsh and cruel, turned into weapons. They wouldn't see me, they would see the enemy.

I wonder… will there ever be a day when I can proudly call myself German? A day when I could walk around the city, having everyone know who I am, but no-one treating me with hatred? Yes… I believe that this will happen one day. A day when I can be different and be proud, not scared and hiding behind by mask. A day when everyone will know me as I really am. A day when I'm not Anne Collins, but Annaliese Bachmann once again.