Just like every Leo, she had to be the center of attention. Always in a crowd, Jennifer thought that the world revolved around her. She had been the one child her mother and father doted on, to the pain and suffering of her three brothers. Her parents had wanted a girl, and it had taken four tries to get one, so they showered her with much attention and material objects.
Also, Jennifer was beautiful. Everyone commented on her looks, making her parents proud. She ruled the roost, and whatever Jennifer wanted to do quickly became the outing of the day! It did not matter if her brothers had games and wanted their parents to attend.
Jennifer was the person everyone wanted to befriend at school, and she used that power to manipulate people into committing acts that they never would have otherwise. She was a bully, but no one ever labeled her one. To them, she just liked having fun, and people should not have been so thin-skinned. She didn’t mean any harm, not really!
As a big fish in a little pond, Jennifer was not prepared for the “real world”. The rude awakenings began when she met her roommate, Carla, a no-nonsense kind of person who did not suffer fools or spoiled brats.
When Jennifer tried to tell Carla which bed she wanted, Carla never even acknowledged her. Frustrated and upset that she was being ignored, Jennifer tried to intimidate Carla, stating, “You better be good to me. I can make or break you!” Carla just laughed at her.
Not accustomed to being treated as insignificant, Jennifer stumped out of her room and went looking for the Resident Assistant for her dorm. When she found her, Jennifer insisted that Carla be immediately assigned to another room, as she did not want to share her room with that cow!
The Resident Assistant stared at her as if she had lost her mind. She responded, “I don’t know what power you might have had at home, but here, you don’t have the power or authority to decide who lives where, and especially not the daughter of the President of the university. I would be careful that you don’t end up an outsider! Carla can make or break your stay here! So I would suggest you play nice with her.”
As she walked back to her dorm room, Jennifer realized that she had become a little fish in a big pond. Neither her beauty nor her parents’ belief that she was “all that” mattered here. As she endured the escapades of Carla and her friends, always being the one left behind, she finally understood the pain she inflicted on others, especially her three brothers.
Everyone at home marveled at the changes in Jennifer when she returned for the Christmas break. She became more compassionate towards others, allowing the opinions and thoughts of others to take precedence over her own. She apologized to her three brothers for her selfishness, and asked for their forgiveness. At first, they thought that she was tricking them, but finally understood that some type of rude awakening at college had taught Jennifer that she wasn’t the center of the universe. Thank goodness!
Written for First Line Friday from Mindlovemisery’s Menagerie, and for August Writing Prompts from Putting My Feet in the Dirt: always in a crowd.
Help from Heaven 