Colors of the Heart

by Sophia Ai, Torrey Pines High School '22 November 4, 2020

"Costume Party" by Angelina Ochoa, Canyon Crest Academy '22

Then you have the ones who are yellow.

You see a lot of them during the forgotten hours in between the time that nightclubs close and the sun rises. Probably high on some illicit substance they bought in the alleyways tucked behind restaurants and cafes and smoking cigarettes and drinking vodka that dye their ink a sickly yellow. They cling to each other like magnets, desperate to hold onto something that isn’t a bottle.

They’re lost in their own world, which, in its own way, is a form of paradise.

Then you have the ones who are black.

I’m not exactly sure how one ends up with a black heart. It’s nearly unfathomable; just how much do you have to screw up to get to that point? Some say it’s an unfortunate mix of the other colors, while others say that they’re simply cursed and there’s no other way to go about it. But I have my own theory I came up with while sitting in a bathtub of lukewarm water in my pajamas on a Sunday night. I like to think this theory is the entire truth of our world condensed into a small paragraph:

It’s already known that we are all born equal—when we’re pushed into the blinding light and we breathe our first breaths, the few drops of ink inside the glass are iridescent: blues and pinks and yellows and greens swirl and converge, creating a beautiful palette of possibility. Once in a blue moon, a newborn pops out and the nurses peer at the little glass box situated at the center of the baby’s chest, eager to see the iridescent ink, only to be met with pure, dark, blackness. How truly unfortunate that fate had decided this baby would be the one to shoulder society’s burdens and blame. So yes, it is in a way a curse: it’s beyond your control and you’re sentenced to a life where those with red blue and yellow hearts stare at you in the streets and whisper to each other and ask say, Hey you, yes you, why is yours black? hat did you do in your previous life? and we always ask ourselves why, why—

—but the answer is simple.

The world we live in is flawed, and although it’s already known that we are all born equal, at the same time we are not all born equal. Society wants, no, needs, someone or something to blame, and that responsibility has fallen onto your shoulders.

I’m sorry.