Berklee College of Music

Prologue (Part 2 - Toph)

I'm not the same girl I was when I was young...well, younger. When I turned three the doctors said I had some rare genetic disease that made me lose my eye sight. Three years later, at the age of six, I woke up one morning and it was all gone. No blurriness, no weird colors or shapes, just darkness. I remember some colors, mostly blue, yellow and orange. I lived near the ocean and I went there a lot when I was little with my caretaker.

That sounded weird. I have parents, but they aren't there for me. So they hired someone to watch over me while they went around the world and did business with other countries. I stayed at home, sitting in my room, blasting angsty music, and listening to the screams and cries of my dying dreams. Sounds depressing right? Of course it is. My parents not only don't take care of me, but they also don't even know where I went/go to school.

My caretaker transferred me from a deaf and blind school to a regular school once I got state of the art hearing aids that I bought with the allowance I get. You're probably wondering how I can afford that. Well, my parents are rich. They are the richest family in Tokyo...at least that I know of. My parents shelter me from the world. Or at least they think they are sheltering me from the world. I've done more than they think. I've gotten into fights at school. I've done some drugs. I've been drinking since I was fifteen. They think that I'm still going to that damned disabled school. They know nothing about my life.

Once I turned eighteen I told my parents about the high school I graduated from. They sounded shocked. My caretaker told me that their faces were priceless. I told them that I was going to the States to attend a college that could help me with my studies. They yelled and screaming saying 'no no no' but in the end I left. I was my own person now, legal age. I already had the money to pay for a four year school. So I decided that I wanted somewhere that had a beach, was warm enough to get a tan, and had snow cones (I love those things). So I decided to go to Florida – University of Florida.

I don't know what I was going to major in yet. For now I would take the needed core classes until it was time to choose a major. When I knew I got into the college my caretaker took me straight there and helped me set up my dorm room. Since I was disabled I got an extra-large room that I could share with my caretaker. I didn't have to have anyone else stay with me. I got calls over and over from my parents telling me to come home and they would forgive me.

I really could just laugh at how pathetic they are acting. Why the hell should I go back? To be locked in my room, only to come out to eat or drink or take a shower. No, I wasn't going to be boxed in like that again. So I stuck at the school and couldn't wait for my first class.