Lost Paradise (The Savages of the Blue Lagoon)

47. Chapter 47

Chapter 47

The letter left inside the old Soviet bunker.

Dear Dean Carmichael,

We accept the fact that we had to sacrifice the joys of orientation week and be suspended for whatever it was we did wrong. What we did might have been wrong according to you, but we think you’re mad 1 to make us write a 5,000-word essay detailing our experience and how it has impacted our lives.

What do you care?

You perceive us the way you want to see us: in the easiest terms, the most convenient labels. You see us as a Princess, an Athlete, a Basket Case, a Brain, a Criminal, and a Teacher. That’s the way we saw each other on the morning you called us into your office. That’s how you addressed us, but we were brainwashed.

These roles were imposed on us by you, our parents, and society, who cover our eyes and expect us to follow them. We were boxed into these roles, each of us fitting neatly into a societal stereotype. You saw us this way because it's easier to categorize people rather than understand them as complex individuals.

The ordeal of surviving a plane crash and being stranded on an island for five weeks stripped away the superficial layers of our identities. In those harsh and unyielding circumstances, the labels that once defined us began to dissolve. We were forced to confront the raw, unvarnished truths about ourselves and each other.

What we found out was that we’re all crazy, and bad, and beautiful, and spoiled, and strong, and mature, and leaders, and caregivers, and looney tunes, and brilliant. We reject the narrow definitions that were imposed on us and embrace the complexity of our true selves.

We are not just a label. We are multi-dimensional, evolving individuals who deserve to be seen and accepted for all that we are.

We emerged from the island not just as survivors but as people who had seen each other in our truest forms.

Take it or leave it; this is who we are.

Sincerely yours,

The Savages of the Blue Lagoon.

The End

1. British for crazy