Dear Cisco,

Just returned from the competition! Or, it's more of I'm in the car ride home. We got into the final four, but sadly only got fourth place. It was probably the essay - it was one hundred words over!

We also got a Speciality award - best use of materials!

So we got our school $550 dollars - $150 for the specialty award and the rest from fourth place.

I'm very tired, and my heels burn from having worn some really tall high heels all day, most of the time standing. I'm flat footed, and the heels are designed for people with curved feet. My parents don't realize this, I really like those heels! They make my big, dorky feet look small and make me look better!

I hate being tall - I mean, I hate the feeling of being short. But tall, you are very limited. You have big, ridiculous feet and am such a clutz! I absolutely despise it!

I wonder if anyone will read this - the boring life of a tall rich girl. Sometimes I feel so spoiled, and feel like a snobby brat. And my dad enforces that feeling a lot.

We had an argument last night. He afterwards wanted me to think about what's important. But the problem is, we have different opinions on this one. He wants me to be smart and an engineer like him - I want to draw, write books, act, and animate! And I am afraid to tell him, he might say that I am wasting my intelligence or something, or discourage it. I feel so out of place. Everyone wants to be surgeons or engineers!

I always feel out of place - I honestly have no true friends who I feel comfortable with opening up to. I want a friend who is close and I can trust. The only people like that are online friends - and if I open up then they could be creepy rapists tying to find me! And whenever I talk about them in school, my classmates always say that. I want to have something to hold onto, the comforting thought that someone actually cares.

~May Allen