In Nicaragua, I lived in the typical, judgmental small town, where blending in is the thing to do, and good girls and boys are applauded and hailed as examples for the other kids to follow. But, overnight, I was submerged into a completely different culture. All of a sudden, everyone was not the same. People did everything they possibly could to stand out from one another. There was no such thing as a certain way you were supposed to be. There was no “perfect” role model for young people to follow. And, most importantly, teens weren’t expected to unquestioningly accept anything and everything they were told to think or do.

These young people seemed to challenge everything around them, they seemed to look for every last rule they could possibly break, and do so in the loudest, most disruptive manner possible. It may not seem that way to someone who has lived in Toronto forever, but to me it was endlessly intriguing. I knew that, back in my old town, any girl that dared to wear white pancake makeup, black lipstick, and rimmed her eyes with thick, black lines, wouldn’t be able to take five minutes of people’s critical gazes upon her before she lowered her head, ashamed, and rushed home to wash it all off. But in this huge, colorful city it wasn’t like that at all. On the contrary, these strange-looking teenagers would hold their heads up proudly, and meet people’s disapproving glares with strong, fearless ones, holding their gazes steadily until the person judging them was the one to look away uncomfortably. I had never seen such courageous irreverence, such disregard for stupid, unwritten rules, and, above all, such questioning of authority. I was positively mesmerized.

Needless to say, this changed my outlook on everything. I was still a good girl for the most part, and I definitely didn’t possess the courage to stand up to authorities and tell them to go to hell. But I had seen other people do it, and I liked it. And, even though I later on learned the difference between those “rebellious” teenagers that only acted this way for lack of something better to do with their time, as opposed to those who took the lifestyle seriously, from not being judgmental of others to political activism, their fearless, unconventional view on things would remain imprinted upon me from that moment onward. I would no longer have an ingrained reaction to everything. On the contrary, I would question things before making up my mind.