When I was five years old, I was playing in my room when I thought I heard my mother singing a song about getting a divorce. I realized that she was half asleep in her bed. Sure enough, they got divorced the summer before freshman year.

I didn’t understand it but I didn’t hear anything like that until 10th grade. It was freaky I could hear my administrators, teachers, and classmates singing. My administrator sang “Juicy- Biggie, ” and my teacher sang “Pressure- Billy Joel ”.  Immediately, I  rushed out of class and went straight to my guidance counselor. When I told her she thought I was going insane but I kept reassuring her that I wasn’t. She said, “Honey you’re going through adolescent changes. Maybe this weird ability is because of what you’re currently enduring.”​

I began to say, “No, I can hear your thoughts, I can hear that you’re aggravated and ready to go to lunch!”, I exclaim. She stands up out of her chair and looks as if there’s a camera in her office but it’s me hearing her thoughts through song. At this point, I knew she was aggravated and wouldn’t understand. Before storming out, I said ”Thank you, Ms. Hall!” In a sarcastic voice then frustratedly stormed out of her office.

I made it just in time for my least favorite class P.E. Being that I forgot my uniform, I had to sit on the sidelines with the boys. I heard one of the boys’ thoughts and boy was  it disturbing! The song that he was singing in my head was “I Need Love”- LL Cool J. I tried to make it stop by humming any other song in my head. I started to wonder…WHY ME? When the bell rang for dismissal, I couldn’t hear anyones thoughts anymore. Weeks and weeks have passed by, everything seems normal. I’m having fun in high school and tomorrow is my graduation. I’m super excited and my family is here! Wow, it’s been 10 years and no voices.

Abruptly, my mom died. I wondered where my superpowers were when she was sick. Why couldn’t I hear her thoughts when she was here with me? Why didn’t my superpowers prepare me for what was going to happen?  Why? Why? Why cant stupid superpowers work when you need them? As I was sitting there, grieving, a song popped in my head, I’ll Be There- Jackson 5. The lyrics being “Just call my name and I’ll be there”. Is this really happening to me? Am I really hearing my mom’s voice from the other side? Which brought joyful tears.

From that day forward, that incident will always give me reassurance that my mom will always be there for me in spirit. After a year of grieving, I wanted to use my gift for good.  I decided to go back to school and pursue a new major in Psychology which came easy to me with the gift that I had. I was able to understand people’s thoughts that they wouldn’t say but wanted to. This superpower has given me the power to help people, like how I desperately wanted people to help me. If they were hearing voices, grieving or struggling, I just wanted people to embrace their differences.