Rachel Brooks by Madison

Rachel Brooks by Madison - June 2022 Scholarship Essay

Rachel Brooks, a seventh grader who was struggling with scoliosis and loves to play soccer in the book titled Braced, dealt with the reality of just dealing with life the way it hits you and not worrying about others opinions. Her mom was having a baby, which she didn’t like the idea of, simply because she was the only kid in her grade who was going to be a big sister to a baby. In addition, she was diagnosed with scoliosis and had the option to have screws in her back like her mother, who also has scoliosis, or wear a back brace. She chose a back brace and had to wear it for 23 hours and was able to have a 1 hour break. At first she was okay with the idea until it was difficult to do things and also when people began to notice. Once she formed an insecurity towards the brace and wore it as less as possible without getting caught, her scoliosis began to worsen. She started having appointments and the doctors told her she needed to start wearing her brace per the required time period or her curve will become worse.
In the midst of all of this she had a crush on a boy named Tate and she definitely did not want him to see her in her back brace. She would try to avoid it as much as she could. Her trying to avoid the braced meant time spent without it on. So as her scoliosis check up continued she finally had one more appointment. Or so she thought, the doctor had told her that she needed the brace longer. With all the challenges faced and difficulties she had in store for herself, she realized that her brace is now apart of who she was because in order for her to get better she needed to wear it. She faced her challenges and difficulties like a champ and kept on with her life knowing she will be better.
Now, as a reader with the same teenage mindset I was pretty bummed when I finished the book. I wanted her to be healed and for her to have a normal life, when that is the lesson I had to learn. No one is normal and no life experience is normal either. As a society the mindset of life is to be normal or to have the best hairstyle, clothes, shoes, body figure, nose shape, etc. when in reality we just need to love ourselves for who we are. Everyone is different and has different personal issues in their life time, but when life gives you lemons make lemonade. In this case her lemonade would be accepting that she has to wear her back brace to get better.