{"id":12093,"date":"2024-05-03T17:59:00","date_gmt":"2024-05-03T17:59:00","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/blog.greendot.org\/?p=12093"},"modified":"2024-05-03T17:59:00","modified_gmt":"2024-05-03T17:59:00","slug":"writing-romantic-secret-by-jayden-lemus","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/greendot.org\/newsold\/writing-romantic-secret-by-jayden-lemus\/","title":{"rendered":"Writing: ‘Romantic Secret’ by Jayden Lemus"},"content":{"rendered":"\n\n\t

This piece<\/i> placed second for Middle School Writing submissions<\/i><\/b> in the 2024 <\/i>\u00c1nimo Voices WRITING, ART, & SPOKEN WORD COMPETITION 2024<\/i><\/a>, which invited students to respond to an open prompt. The competition is an opportunity to motivate, recognize, and celebrate our strong student voices through writing, spoken word, and art<\/i><\/p>\n\t

Romantic Secret<\/h2>\n\tIt all started in my room – the sky dark as midnight. I was watching a romance
\nanime, which I don’t usually watch, but alas, it caught my attention. And at that moment, I
\nwas entranced. The world fell silent, and all I could hear were the characters on the TV. Their
\nvoices sounded so important… and loud, like Dr. King giving his “I Have a Dream Speech.” It
\nis still foggy in my memory, but I believe it was a confession of love that happened in the
\nshow. I felt tears run down my eyes. I couldn’t understand what I was feeling. They were
\ntears of sadness – that much I knew. But it had a deeper meaning behind it; what I was
\nwatching moved me to tears. It was the first of many emotions to come-a spiral of emotions
\nthat had me more emotionally attached to a show than any other before. I felt emptiness. I
\ncan’t find the words to describe that empty feeling you get after you’ve finished watching a
\nromance movie, and it had a subtle yet obvious development between the main characters.
\nBut It was something similar to that. Mixed in with envy of how I wanted an experience
\nsimilar for my own love life. Although if the opportunity appeared right in front of me the day
\nlater, I doubt I would do anything, which confuses even myself at times. My thoughts quickly
\ndisappeared when I heard my mom walk down the hallway to my room. I switched to
\nsomething else very quickly before she entered. “Why are you crying?” She inquired. “I
\nstubbed my toe,” I said dryly. “Hard.” That night I couldn’t sleep, I couldn’t tell my mom that
\nI had taken an interest in romance. I would’ve had to keep it hidden. But I craved more of
\nthat unknown feeling. I wanted it back more than ever.\nI kept my interests to myself for a couple of weeks, but I wanted this specific
\nromance graphic novel badly. The title was “Whisper Me A Love Song.” I had heard about it
\non this Youtube channel called SWAYNAMI that recommends books\/anime of all genres. I
\nwas fighting with myself whether to risk it all and ask my mom if I could buy it. I decided to
\ngo for it. I planned my words very carefully. “Mom, so. There’s this book that I saw online,
\nand I thought it looked pretty cool. There’s a store nearby that has it, and I was wondering if I
\ncould buy it?” I had a sheepish grin on my face and my legs felt like jello. “UHH WITH my
\nown money of course.” My mom had been sweeping the living room before she stopped to
\nlook at me. The seconds felt like hours as I stood there waiting ever so patiently. “I don’t see
\nwhy not. We can go tomorrow.” I had replied back with something, but my brain didn’t even
\nregister it. I was full of excitement as I headed back to my room quickly. It was then I came to
\nthe conclusion that my mom wasn’t going to make a fuss over it as I had thought she would. I
\nhad totally expected her to tease me as she usually did with my younger brother whenever
\nshe had seen him talking to a girl, or when he mentioned talking to a girl. He is only 7 years
\nold, so I found it quite peculiar but didn’t say anything. Or I had thought she would tell me
\nthat I wasn’t mature enough for those types of books even though I’m sure I was. But when
\nshe accepted it, I felt like I had no need to worry anymore, and I could finally buy the books
\nthat I could previously only see online and yearn for. Weeks passed and my bookshelf grew
\nand grew until it was at least 65 percent romance novels. Yep, my mom was definitely okay with it.\nSchool was a whole different problem; there was no way you’d catch me with my
\nbooks at school. Call it my imagination, but I had this whole terrible scenario in my head
\nwhere everyone would start giggling, and laughing, and whispering that I had chosen a
\nsupposedly “girly book” since it had to do with love and romance. I had started cringing with
\nembarrassment at the thought of becoming the laughingstock of my class. Then it could
\npossibly spread across the school. I was determined to stop that from happening. As a result, I
\nwould choose books that I had no interest in, but thought that other kids would find normal.
\nBut I was sick of it. Sick of pretending. I couldn’t stand the thought of letting things carry on
\nlike this. Where I would let my true self shine at home, but keep myself hidden in a turtle
\nshell at school. It was exhausting to keep up the act. The truth would come out eventually, so
\nI want it to come out in the way I want. I would just have to clench my teeth and deal with
\nthe backlash. In our reading period, you read a book of your choice, and if you finish your
\nprevious book, you get up and get another one from the bookshelf. One day, I had finished a
\n“normal” book relatively fast and went up to get another one when I saw one that captured
\nmy attention-it had bright colors and had the word “LOVE” in big bold letters on the back of
\nthe book. I had hoped that it would let me reunite with the feelings I had reading my
\nromance novels in my home. My chance was now or never. I grabbed it and quickly headed
\nback to my seat. I opened the book. Although I very briefly read the description on the back of
\nthe book as I didn’t want to attract any more attention to myself standing up, it was pretty
\nobvious it had to do with romance. For the first few minutes I observed my surroundings.
\nThere are quite a few rambunctious kids in my class that could cause a ruckus, but
\nsurprisingly everyone minded their own business. I felt a huge weight lifted off my chest as I
\nquietly read for the rest of class.\nIt was then that I had thought of something: no one cares about what I’m doing. No
\none is going to openly speak to me in front of everyone and put me on the spot. I’ve always
\nhad friends with different interests, but only until I shared my identity with others did I meet
\nfun people. Friendly people. My people. I felt like I had a place in school when I met those
\nkinds of people.\nFor all the people who are scared to share their true identity. Just do it. Take the
\nhard step. You can never guess or predict how people will react. You will never know if
\nsharing your identity can help you meet your best friend for life, or if it unites you with the
\none for you. Life is too valuable and short to hide your true self from others. Do you want to
\nknow who I am? I’ll tell you. I’ll tell everyone that I’m not scared anymore. I am a boy who
\nloves romance. I am a boy who loves his family. I am a boy who likes to watch and play
\nbaseball. I am a boy. The beauty of identity.\n\t\t\t\t\"Jatden-Orta-thumbnail\"\n\t

 <\/p>\n

 <\/p>\n

Jayden Lemus<\/strong><\/p>\n

7th Grade, \u00c1nimo Florence-Firestone<\/a><\/p>\n

Guiding Teacher: Annie Pellegrini<\/p>\n\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Read the piece that won second place from all of our California middle schools by Jayden Lemus, a student at \u00c1nimo Florence-Firestone Charter Middle School<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":12,"featured_media":12368,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_monsterinsights_skip_tracking":false,"_monsterinsights_sitenote_active":false,"_monsterinsights_sitenote_note":"","_monsterinsights_sitenote_category":0,"footnotes":""},"categories":[37,38],"tags":[14],"class_list":["post-12093","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-animo-voices","category-series","tag-green-dot-california"],"yoast_head":"\nWriting: 'Romantic Secret' by Jayden Lemus - News<\/title>\n<meta name=\"description\" content=\"Read the piece that won second place from all of our California middle schools by Jessica Mauldin, a student at \u00c1nimo Legacy Charter Middle School.\" \/>\n<meta name=\"robots\" content=\"index, follow, max-snippet:-1, max-image-preview:large, max-video-preview:-1\" \/>\n<link rel=\"canonical\" href=\"https:\/\/greendot.org\/newsold\/writing-romantic-secret-by-jayden-lemus\/\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:locale\" content=\"en_US\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:type\" content=\"article\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:title\" content=\"Writing: 'Romantic Secret' by Jayden Lemus - News\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:description\" content=\"Read the piece that won second place from all of our California middle schools by Jessica Mauldin, a student at \u00c1nimo Legacy Charter Middle School.\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:url\" content=\"https:\/\/greendot.org\/newsold\/writing-romantic-secret-by-jayden-lemus\/\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:site_name\" content=\"News\" \/>\n<meta property=\"article:published_time\" content=\"2024-05-03T17:59:00+00:00\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:image\" content=\"https:\/\/greendot.org\/newsold\/wp-content\/uploads\/sites\/23\/2023\/04\/MS-2nd-Place.jpg\" \/>\n\t<meta property=\"og:image:width\" content=\"2025\" \/>\n\t<meta property=\"og:image:height\" content=\"1275\" \/>\n\t<meta property=\"og:image:type\" content=\"image\/jpeg\" \/>\n<meta name=\"author\" content=\"jnunez\" \/>\n<meta name=\"twitter:card\" content=\"summary_large_image\" \/>\n<meta name=\"twitter:label1\" content=\"Written by\" \/>\n\t<meta name=\"twitter:data1\" content=\"jnunez\" \/>\n\t<meta name=\"twitter:label2\" content=\"Est. reading time\" \/>\n\t<meta name=\"twitter:data2\" content=\"5 minutes\" \/>\n<script type=\"application\/ld+json\" class=\"yoast-schema-graph\">{\"@context\":\"https:\/\/schema.org\",\"@graph\":[{\"@type\":\"Article\",\"@id\":\"https:\/\/greendot.org\/newsold\/writing-romantic-secret-by-jayden-lemus\/#article\",\"isPartOf\":{\"@id\":\"https:\/\/greendot.org\/newsold\/writing-romantic-secret-by-jayden-lemus\/\"},\"author\":{\"name\":\"jnunez\",\"@id\":\"https:\/\/greendot.org\/newsold\/#\/schema\/person\/09b537283e99fe83e322551356d61e12\"},\"headline\":\"Writing: ‘Romantic Secret’ by Jayden Lemus\",\"datePublished\":\"2024-05-03T17:59:00+00:00\",\"mainEntityOfPage\":{\"@id\":\"https:\/\/greendot.org\/newsold\/writing-romantic-secret-by-jayden-lemus\/\"},\"wordCount\":1339,\"publisher\":{\"@id\":\"https:\/\/greendot.org\/newsold\/#organization\"},\"image\":{\"@id\":\"https:\/\/greendot.org\/newsold\/writing-romantic-secret-by-jayden-lemus\/#primaryimage\"},\"thumbnailUrl\":\"https:\/\/greendot.org\/newsold\/wp-content\/uploads\/sites\/23\/2023\/04\/MS-2nd-Place.jpg\",\"keywords\":[\"Green Dot California\"],\"articleSection\":[\"Animo Voices\",\"Series\"],\"inLanguage\":\"en-US\"},{\"@type\":\"WebPage\",\"@id\":\"https:\/\/greendot.org\/newsold\/writing-romantic-secret-by-jayden-lemus\/\",\"url\":\"https:\/\/greendot.org\/newsold\/writing-romantic-secret-by-jayden-lemus\/\",\"name\":\"Writing: 'Romantic Secret' by Jayden Lemus - News\",\"isPartOf\":{\"@id\":\"https:\/\/greendot.org\/newsold\/#website\"},\"primaryImageOfPage\":{\"@id\":\"https:\/\/greendot.org\/newsold\/writing-romantic-secret-by-jayden-lemus\/#primaryimage\"},\"image\":{\"@id\":\"https:\/\/greendot.org\/newsold\/writing-romantic-secret-by-jayden-lemus\/#primaryimage\"},\"thumbnailUrl\":\"https:\/\/greendot.org\/newsold\/wp-content\/uploads\/sites\/23\/2023\/04\/MS-2nd-Place.jpg\",\"datePublished\":\"2024-05-03T17:59:00+00:00\",\"description\":\"Read the piece that won second place from all of our California middle schools by Jessica Mauldin, a student at \u00c1nimo Legacy Charter Middle School.\",\"breadcrumb\":{\"@id\":\"https:\/\/greendot.org\/newsold\/writing-romantic-secret-by-jayden-lemus\/#breadcrumb\"},\"inLanguage\":\"en-US\",\"potentialAction\":[{\"@type\":\"ReadAction\",\"target\":[\"https:\/\/greendot.org\/newsold\/writing-romantic-secret-by-jayden-lemus\/\"]}]},{\"@type\":\"ImageObject\",\"inLanguage\":\"en-US\",\"@id\":\"https:\/\/greendot.org\/newsold\/writing-romantic-secret-by-jayden-lemus\/#primaryimage\",\"url\":\"https:\/\/greendot.org\/newsold\/wp-content\/uploads\/sites\/23\/2023\/04\/MS-2nd-Place.jpg\",\"contentUrl\":\"https:\/\/greendot.org\/newsold\/wp-content\/uploads\/sites\/23\/2023\/04\/MS-2nd-Place.jpg\",\"width\":2025,\"height\":1275,\"caption\":\"Second place winner Middle School\"},{\"@type\":\"BreadcrumbList\",\"@id\":\"https:\/\/greendot.org\/newsold\/writing-romantic-secret-by-jayden-lemus\/#breadcrumb\",\"itemListElement\":[{\"@type\":\"ListItem\",\"position\":1,\"name\":\"Home\",\"item\":\"https:\/\/greendot.org\/newsold\/\"},{\"@type\":\"ListItem\",\"position\":2,\"name\":\"Writing: ‘Romantic Secret’ by Jayden Lemus\"}]},{\"@type\":\"WebSite\",\"@id\":\"https:\/\/greendot.org\/newsold\/#website\",\"url\":\"https:\/\/greendot.org\/newsold\/\",\"name\":\"News\",\"description\":\"\",\"publisher\":{\"@id\":\"https:\/\/greendot.org\/newsold\/#organization\"},\"potentialAction\":[{\"@type\":\"SearchAction\",\"target\":{\"@type\":\"EntryPoint\",\"urlTemplate\":\"https:\/\/greendot.org\/newsold\/?s={search_term_string}\"},\"query-input\":{\"@type\":\"PropertyValueSpecification\",\"valueRequired\":true,\"valueName\":\"search_term_string\"}}],\"inLanguage\":\"en-US\"},{\"@type\":\"Organization\",\"@id\":\"https:\/\/greendot.org\/newsold\/#organization\",\"name\":\"News\",\"url\":\"https:\/\/greendot.org\/newsold\/\",\"logo\":{\"@type\":\"ImageObject\",\"inLanguage\":\"en-US\",\"@id\":\"https:\/\/greendot.org\/newsold\/#\/schema\/logo\/image\/\",\"url\":\"https:\/\/greendot.org\/newsold\/wp-content\/uploads\/sites\/23\/2024\/06\/logo-2.png\",\"contentUrl\":\"https:\/\/greendot.org\/newsold\/wp-content\/uploads\/sites\/23\/2024\/06\/logo-2.png\",\"width\":2000,\"height\":857,\"caption\":\"News\"},\"image\":{\"@id\":\"https:\/\/greendot.org\/newsold\/#\/schema\/logo\/image\/\"}},{\"@type\":\"Person\",\"@id\":\"https:\/\/greendot.org\/newsold\/#\/schema\/person\/09b537283e99fe83e322551356d61e12\",\"name\":\"jnunez\",\"image\":{\"@type\":\"ImageObject\",\"inLanguage\":\"en-US\",\"@id\":\"https:\/\/greendot.org\/newsold\/#\/schema\/person\/image\/\",\"url\":\"https:\/\/secure.gravatar.com\/avatar\/?s=96&d=mm&r=g\",\"contentUrl\":\"https:\/\/secure.gravatar.com\/avatar\/?s=96&d=mm&r=g\",\"caption\":\"jnunez\"},\"url\":\"https:\/\/greendot.org\/newsold\/author\/jnunez\/\"}]}<\/script>\n<!-- \/ Yoast SEO plugin. -->","yoast_head_json":{"title":"Writing: 'Romantic Secret' by Jayden Lemus - News","description":"Read the piece that won second place from all of our California middle schools by Jessica Mauldin, a student at \u00c1nimo Legacy Charter Middle School.","robots":{"index":"index","follow":"follow","max-snippet":"max-snippet:-1","max-image-preview":"max-image-preview:large","max-video-preview":"max-video-preview:-1"},"canonical":"https:\/\/greendot.org\/newsold\/writing-romantic-secret-by-jayden-lemus\/","og_locale":"en_US","og_type":"article","og_title":"Writing: 'Romantic Secret' by Jayden Lemus - News","og_description":"Read the piece that won second place from all of our California middle schools by Jessica Mauldin, a student at \u00c1nimo Legacy Charter Middle School.","og_url":"https:\/\/greendot.org\/newsold\/writing-romantic-secret-by-jayden-lemus\/","og_site_name":"News","article_published_time":"2024-05-03T17:59:00+00:00","og_image":[{"width":2025,"height":1275,"url":"https:\/\/greendot.org\/newsold\/wp-content\/uploads\/sites\/23\/2023\/04\/MS-2nd-Place.jpg","type":"image\/jpeg"}],"author":"jnunez","twitter_card":"summary_large_image","twitter_misc":{"Written by":"jnunez","Est. reading time":"5 minutes"},"schema":{"@context":"https:\/\/schema.org","@graph":[{"@type":"Article","@id":"https:\/\/greendot.org\/newsold\/writing-romantic-secret-by-jayden-lemus\/#article","isPartOf":{"@id":"https:\/\/greendot.org\/newsold\/writing-romantic-secret-by-jayden-lemus\/"},"author":{"name":"jnunez","@id":"https:\/\/greendot.org\/newsold\/#\/schema\/person\/09b537283e99fe83e322551356d61e12"},"headline":"Writing: ‘Romantic Secret’ by Jayden Lemus","datePublished":"2024-05-03T17:59:00+00:00","mainEntityOfPage":{"@id":"https:\/\/greendot.org\/newsold\/writing-romantic-secret-by-jayden-lemus\/"},"wordCount":1339,"publisher":{"@id":"https:\/\/greendot.org\/newsold\/#organization"},"image":{"@id":"https:\/\/greendot.org\/newsold\/writing-romantic-secret-by-jayden-lemus\/#primaryimage"},"thumbnailUrl":"https:\/\/greendot.org\/newsold\/wp-content\/uploads\/sites\/23\/2023\/04\/MS-2nd-Place.jpg","keywords":["Green Dot California"],"articleSection":["Animo Voices","Series"],"inLanguage":"en-US"},{"@type":"WebPage","@id":"https:\/\/greendot.org\/newsold\/writing-romantic-secret-by-jayden-lemus\/","url":"https:\/\/greendot.org\/newsold\/writing-romantic-secret-by-jayden-lemus\/","name":"Writing: 'Romantic Secret' by Jayden Lemus - News","isPartOf":{"@id":"https:\/\/greendot.org\/newsold\/#website"},"primaryImageOfPage":{"@id":"https:\/\/greendot.org\/newsold\/writing-romantic-secret-by-jayden-lemus\/#primaryimage"},"image":{"@id":"https:\/\/greendot.org\/newsold\/writing-romantic-secret-by-jayden-lemus\/#primaryimage"},"thumbnailUrl":"https:\/\/greendot.org\/newsold\/wp-content\/uploads\/sites\/23\/2023\/04\/MS-2nd-Place.jpg","datePublished":"2024-05-03T17:59:00+00:00","description":"Read the piece that won second place from all of our California middle schools by Jessica Mauldin, a student at \u00c1nimo Legacy Charter Middle School.","breadcrumb":{"@id":"https:\/\/greendot.org\/newsold\/writing-romantic-secret-by-jayden-lemus\/#breadcrumb"},"inLanguage":"en-US","potentialAction":[{"@type":"ReadAction","target":["https:\/\/greendot.org\/newsold\/writing-romantic-secret-by-jayden-lemus\/"]}]},{"@type":"ImageObject","inLanguage":"en-US","@id":"https:\/\/greendot.org\/newsold\/writing-romantic-secret-by-jayden-lemus\/#primaryimage","url":"https:\/\/greendot.org\/newsold\/wp-content\/uploads\/sites\/23\/2023\/04\/MS-2nd-Place.jpg","contentUrl":"https:\/\/greendot.org\/newsold\/wp-content\/uploads\/sites\/23\/2023\/04\/MS-2nd-Place.jpg","width":2025,"height":1275,"caption":"Second place winner Middle School"},{"@type":"BreadcrumbList","@id":"https:\/\/greendot.org\/newsold\/writing-romantic-secret-by-jayden-lemus\/#breadcrumb","itemListElement":[{"@type":"ListItem","position":1,"name":"Home","item":"https:\/\/greendot.org\/newsold\/"},{"@type":"ListItem","position":2,"name":"Writing: ‘Romantic Secret’ by Jayden Lemus"}]},{"@type":"WebSite","@id":"https:\/\/greendot.org\/newsold\/#website","url":"https:\/\/greendot.org\/newsold\/","name":"News","description":"","publisher":{"@id":"https:\/\/greendot.org\/newsold\/#organization"},"potentialAction":[{"@type":"SearchAction","target":{"@type":"EntryPoint","urlTemplate":"https:\/\/greendot.org\/newsold\/?s={search_term_string}"},"query-input":{"@type":"PropertyValueSpecification","valueRequired":true,"valueName":"search_term_string"}}],"inLanguage":"en-US"},{"@type":"Organization","@id":"https:\/\/greendot.org\/newsold\/#organization","name":"News","url":"https:\/\/greendot.org\/newsold\/","logo":{"@type":"ImageObject","inLanguage":"en-US","@id":"https:\/\/greendot.org\/newsold\/#\/schema\/logo\/image\/","url":"https:\/\/greendot.org\/newsold\/wp-content\/uploads\/sites\/23\/2024\/06\/logo-2.png","contentUrl":"https:\/\/greendot.org\/newsold\/wp-content\/uploads\/sites\/23\/2024\/06\/logo-2.png","width":2000,"height":857,"caption":"News"},"image":{"@id":"https:\/\/greendot.org\/newsold\/#\/schema\/logo\/image\/"}},{"@type":"Person","@id":"https:\/\/greendot.org\/newsold\/#\/schema\/person\/09b537283e99fe83e322551356d61e12","name":"jnunez","image":{"@type":"ImageObject","inLanguage":"en-US","@id":"https:\/\/greendot.org\/newsold\/#\/schema\/person\/image\/","url":"https:\/\/secure.gravatar.com\/avatar\/?s=96&d=mm&r=g","contentUrl":"https:\/\/secure.gravatar.com\/avatar\/?s=96&d=mm&r=g","caption":"jnunez"},"url":"https:\/\/greendot.org\/newsold\/author\/jnunez\/"}]}},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/greendot.org\/newsold\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/12093","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/greendot.org\/newsold\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/greendot.org\/newsold\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/greendot.org\/newsold\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/12"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/greendot.org\/newsold\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=12093"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/greendot.org\/newsold\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/12093\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/greendot.org\/newsold\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/12368"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/greendot.org\/newsold\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=12093"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/greendot.org\/newsold\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=12093"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/greendot.org\/newsold\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=12093"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}