Finding out the real her  

By: Kevin A.

 Kassie Nhouv is a junior at Yerba Buena High School and how she grew up in a harsh environment and her ways of escaping that environment. Such as being bullied in elementary with no escape from it and having a tough time with family problems and how she would cope with all the bad things going on in her life.

Growing up was tough for Nhouv such as having young parents, having younger parents was tougher on Kassie because they felt like they didn't have anyone to go up to for solutions or a way to get help because her parents were so young and busy. “It felt isolating as a child seeing people do stuff with their parents but I had to do mine with my nana and papa.”

She would end up being more reliant on her grandpa and spending more time with him because he actually had the time for her and she was basically forced to move there due to bad living habits at home so it was better for her. 

Her grandpa would always help her with academics and told her the importance of getting an education.

Nhouv grew up with a lot of bullying in elementary school. the bullying would be constant and they would terrorize her day to day like picking on her and the bullies would complain anytime she did something 

 It really unmotivated her and she wouldn't even want to go to school. and she started getting depressed because of the bullying because everytime she would complain to the office about the bullying but the office wouldn't do nothing about it so she felt really helpless.

 She would read a lot of harry potter books as a way of escape or to feel like she was in another world for a bit like pretending the bullying wasn't there so she would get lost in these books and forget about all the stuff she went through for a bit so it was like her brain taking a break. “Books that have impacted my life the most are Harry potter due to how diverse and lovely they are. They make sure to preach inclusivity.”

 Same goes with the music she listened to. She really liked listening to Taylor Swift because it impacted her life such as being an influence to Nhouv and the way she portrays love like basing her perception of love and how she wanted to be treated off of Taylor Swift song Love Story. 

 Nhouv wanted a dream that got influenced by Taylor Swift such as wanting to dress up in pretty big gowns, have my hair and beautiful curls and wear sparkling makeup. It was always something that she can relate to with Taylor Swift.

 Fortunately, the bullying wouldn't last any longer after elementary and fortunately, she was glad it stopped and she felt nice that it was over but even after the bullying and still felt really angry with all that happening and still had a lot of pain from all the bullying that was happening like it really stuck with her. 

 Nhouv would end up leaving her friend group because if the toxicity such as ignoring her constantly so Nhouv felt really sad and got into a bad head space and because they wouldn't stand up for her when she was getting picked on so her group would just watch and say nothing about the bullying so Nhouv had enough of that group and would meet her best friend Marie 

Her Marie ended up coming into Nhouv’s life she was really good for the hard times Nhouv was stuck in, Marie would actually make the time for Nhouv like listening to whatever Nhouv had to say. Nhouv liked that because Marie never acted like it was a chore to respond to her Marie would never ignore Nhouv and would make her feel like she was actually apart of the conversation 

 Marie including her made Nhouv think she was a safe space and Marie would help her realize that she wasn't straight and was actually pansexual so it opened up a bunch of doors to look into and find out who Kassie Nhouv really was.