542 Metres

• Angela Chen, Grade 9, Brisbane State High School
• Short Story
• 2017

Finalist in the 'Spread The Word 2017' competition

I live exactly 542 metres from the school and it takes me precisely 8 minutes and 47 seconds to walk there. What once used to be a building project in the Great Depression is now a school to over 3000 students. Every day, everywhere, everyone dons masks to hide their deepest feelings, darkest desires and deadliest secrets. These masks that define them, hide them and eventually become them. And it's no different with me.
The reasoning behind what occurred that sunny Wednesday afternoon still remains a mystery. I haven't the foggiest idea why the mask I hid behind cracked. I just sat beside the bag racks, letting the tears slide down my cheeks. It was in that moment I discovered; depression was a toxic plant, slowly weaving its poisonous roots into the depths of one's mind, scattering seeds everywhere. So I stayed there, silent and alone.
Until I heard footsteps and the teacher say, "Ange, when you're ready, come into class, will you?" Though the tone he used was kind, I thought I detected a trace of.... was it annoyance? Was I really that demanding? Enough to annoy a teacher? What does this mean? And it was this thought that motivated me to wipe my tears away and walk somewhat bravely into the library.
At home that day, I dumped my bag on the marble tiled floor, turned and left to climb trees. Using all my might, I pulled myself up as high as I could go. Staring at the cloudless sky that was the light blue of rainbow moonstones, confusion and bleakness swept wave after wave to the shores of my mind. What was I expected to do? I couldn't turn to my parents, whose best advice was "don't commit suicide", and as it appeared, I didn't have a Dumbledore, Chiron or Henri who could explain everything and tell me what to do next. Sitting on that branch, gazing into the distance where each tree grew taller and taller than the one before, it was so peaceful and I realised that no tree was not worth climbing, just like there was no chance not worth taking.
Now, people laugh when I say I climb trees if I'm sad. No one here understands what it's like to be so free to raise yourself higher and higher off the ground. No one here understands how you can travel to an entirely different world, like Alice down the rabbit hole to Wonderland. No one here understands that if you keep climbing, you can leave each and every problem further and further behind.
Every school day, I still walk those 542 metres for 8 minutes and 47 seconds but I'm not wearing my mask, not anymore.