Interrupted Life

After watching the film "Girl, Interrupted," I started to wonder what I would do if I my life were interrupted in the way that Susanna Kason's was, or in any way. In everyday life, we have plenty of small "interruptions", distractions. A text message, an email, a friend saying hi as you walk past them in the hallway or around campus, a roommate walking into your room, a phone call from home, your favorite TV show of the moment, a work out, a practice, a meal. Life in our modern world is full of mini interruptions, and we deal with them as if they aren't any major consequence-because they aren't. We take part in these interruptions, not seeing them as life-changing or greatly altering in any way, just a bit of added 'spice' to our day. We take part and move forward with our lives. But what if we were interrupted in more than just a tiny way? What if instead of the interruption being a quick conversation with a girl you run into on your way to class, the interruption is much larger and more life-altering? What would we do if our lives were dramatically changed in a few minutes, and without our consent like Susanna's mother and doctor putting her into the cab to Claymoore? What would we do if a year of our life as we knew it was taken away?

Personally, I can't even begin to fathom this thought. A year of my life completely different from what I know it as isn't an everyday thought. But watching Susanna Kason's experience, I wondered what I would do. Not if I attempted suicide, but if for whatever reason, I was relocated for a year to a place housing girls with varying issues and illnesses. Would I be able to adapt and accept them, to be friends with them when I knew I wasn't supposed to be there? I can only imagine having to deal with this separation, where you're being placed in a different mental world rather than just physically.

Coming to college and studying abroad have placed me in different situations with a different physical location, but not so much a mental one. I have been forced to get to know girls I previously never knew existed, to learn about myself and those around me, and to see what their lives are like, because most often, they're very different from mine. But like Susanna Kason realized in the end, just because they're different from you are doesn't make them less of people or friends. I was forced to open myself to girls in Rome, and came back with 40 new best friends. They saw me through good and bad, as did the girls at Claymoore saw with Susanna. I thought at times I would never get through, but those were the times I realized how amazing the people around me actually were. Nothing like being placed in an institution like Claymoore, and my life wasn't interrupted like hers was, but it definitely was a part of my life I'll never forget.

To get back to what I'd do if my life were interrupted for a year, I still can't even imagine. I can only hope that if it happened, I'd be able to find friends as good as the ones Susanna Kason did.