Scarf Girl Anonymous

It was my first day of high school- a public high school in Chicago. As I pushed past the sea of people bustling past me to get to my classroom, I felt like a buoy being tossed back and forth by the high tide. Three months prior, I graduated from a private Christian academy where diversity was defined by shades of blonde – bleach, strawberry, or dirty. At my new high school, however, blonde gave way to an array of skin tones, religious beliefs, and cultures. I treaded through the hallways and my sea-blue eyes widened as I heard unknown words in unfamiliar accents ping-ponged back at forth. My eyes continued to widen in awe as they caught a glimpse of something especially unusual: a girl with a scarf covering her hair. “It’s a hot day in September,” I reasoned. “Why in the world is she wearing a scarf?”

My inner conversation was silenced as the late bell rang for first period; I walked through the classroom doors to once again encounter “scarf girl.” My teacher droned on about how “x” is an “apple” and how “y” is a “banana” and that we should never make “fruit salad,” but algebraic fruit salad was the least of my worries; my focus was across the room. “Does she wear that at home? Does she have different colored ones? How does...