(source: Pixabay)
By Karolína Maťková
Ms. Maťková won third place in the C category in the LEAF Academy Essay Competition. She chose the topic "If you could remove one stress factor in your life, what would it be and how would your life be better without it". She studies at the Gymnázium Česká grammar school in Bratislava.
Crime Scene Report
Crime: Missing person
Location: Bratislava
Time: May 15, 2027, 09:30AM
Investigated by: Leaf Academy
Case description:
On this morning of May 15, Miss Wansh, was beginning to panic. Doors to the world of possibility were opening up one by one. She was desperately looking for something, which could help her locate her future self.
The first interrogation in this case was with Miss Wansh herself, the person who knew the most about the missing person. The interrogator has discovered some very fascinating, but disturbing facts from the little information, which he has been given by the woman. She did not know where neither her mind nor soul was. Now that I’m writing it all down it is rather disappointing than disturbing. She was such an accomplished and well-spoken woman, yet she knew everything, except herself.
When asked to physically describe herself she did quite a great job. She described her long legs and blond hair, her red nails and skinny figure. But somehow her description changed about halfway through. She started talking about her imperfections, her insecurities. She started picking herself apart. She went into a disturbing amount detail.
Maybe thirty years ago that would have sounded weird, but today insecurity is more an obviosity rather than something unusual. With this reasoning in his head, the investigator decided not to pay any more attention to her physical features and moved on.
Miss Wansh was asked about her present past and future.
Her answers to questions about her present and past were really sort of empty and unprecise. She talked about her current lifestyle, her admiration for literature and medical researches. About her family and environment growing up. At first glance it might have seemed like she had said quite a lot. But after further investigation what you really find is that she used detailed descriptions to avoid talking about any real emotion she does feel or has felt.
The last question, which has been asked by the interrogator that day was, about her future. Where, she sees herself in the future. She glanced up at the interrogator with no integrity in her eyes and answered with a shaking voice. At that point it came as no surprise, that her answer was very shallow and she could not describe herself in the future, nor could she define any of her plans.
How is such a woman worthy of getting into her dream universities, which are not only extremely prestige but also highly viewed? How shall a girl pretending to be a woman be enough?
A woman pretending to know who she is, basing huge parts of her personality on characters from classic novels. A woman who writes poetry when someone hurts her. A woman who listens to French songs as if there was no other music in this world. A woman who to the contrary to her profound lifestyle has a basic anthropometric view just like each and every one of us.
As she was sitting there, with nothing else but worry in her head, she thought of something. She stood up straight and with a firm articulation started speaking. The interrogator looked very shocked, it was as if suddenly there was a completely different woman sitting in front of him. For years she has been part of the debate club, but still couldn’t find the right words to express herself.
“Snow. I love snow.
Snow means Winter. Winter means skiing. Skiing mean holidays and holidays mean Christmas.
When asking a child what their favorite season is most will say summer. My choice as a ten year old girl would have definitely been the same. I am now older and wiser and realize that the fun experience and holidays you have during the summer could never replace the magic of winter. I love winter. Let me explain.
Warm tea. Snowball fights. All of that is absolutely beautiful, but that is not where my focus is. Gratification. Summer provides fun and excitement. Winter provides in most way less interesting experiences but the quality of them increases visibly.
While summer is warm, winter is cozy. Summer is limited, the happiness you feel will be gone as soon as summer is over, the only thing left will be the memories and pictures. The coziness of winter provides room for tremendous room to make a positive impact on your life. New years resolutions. Seeing friends and family after a longer time could open up many new opportunities for you.
All in all this just means I now value long-term happiness over happiness which only lasts for a limited time.”
She finished. She looked around the room, then back at the investigator.
We really were not expecting much from Miss Wansh at this point. She had a way with words. It was actually mentioned in her school file, but the investigators did not really think much of it as the level of her verbalization was until that point very low.
The police had searched the house of Miss Wansh, and confirmed her DNA. Many of her belongings have been taken by the police for a better examination. Her diary was one of them. She was writing a diary just like many other teenage girls, but hers was quite different. Exquisite in its own way. Weird even. There were pages full of thoughts, pages with washed out ink from her tears, pages only including one word or even a small little drawing. Her diary was like a little world of its own. I do not believe it represented her mind but mainly the way the world, our worlds effect on her. The main detective in this case, has because of reasons like these not been able to make a psychological profile on her.
Miss Wansh has been successfully found and her college application sent to Oxford.
The English Essay Competition is organised by LEAF Academy, an international boarding high school in Bratislava. The competition is open to all Slovak students from primary and secondary schools who are passionate about writing in the English language.
