Sorry

Dear person whom I don’t know yet,

It is nice talking to you. My name is Melissa and I am 17. After the meeting with Jean-Michel Dissard, the movie-maker of « I Learn Amercia », I learnt everybody has a story. I have my own story and you have your own story. How can we define a story ? I think my story is what happened in my past, my actions, my decisions and also my dreams. But I think my story is what there is inside of me, including every feelings. My feelings are an important part of my life and I think they define us, even if it is difficult to put them on paper. Then, I can define my story with my mistakes and with what I learnt about them. But now, my life, my story is not finished. My future choices and what I will be in future : this is my real story.

In this letter I can speak about little things of my life. When I was a child, I wanted time to just go by, I didn’t realize. Today, it’s the same. I don’t realize the importance of enjoying the present. Nowadays I try to do that.

My parents were Portuguese immigrants. When I watched the movie « I Learn America » , I understood better what their feelings could have been. I liked my parents in the past, but I love them even more now. I will never forget values they have passed on me. I have one grand sister I love too. My family and I are religious, we believe in God and that is an important part of my life. Over the years, after some mistakes, I realized what was the most important for me.

I met amazing persons and good friends who helped me, and with them I forget bad things. The questions « who are my real friends ? Can I trust this person ? » were important for me and I wondered about it quite often. Because of some events in my life, it was very hard to trust the other persons and mistrust is here. I was naive. So now, I want to be strong. It is one of my dreams. I don’t care about what others think. I want to be myself and I assume my choices ! I want to control all of my feelings ; when my feelings are in agreement with my reason I am sure it is the good decision.

Adolescence is an important period when we discover lots of things but it is decisive for the future. I want to say everybody is unique, your feelings are unique. Just be yourself !