The BiPolar Project

The Departure

Makenzie Dahl

Many Years Ago....

Do you have any idea what it's like?

To have the world as you know it perfect and calm one day, to have it flipped completely upside down the next day? I imagine this is like how the Jewish people felt when Hitler ruined their lives. They were taken away from their friends, family and freedoms. They didn't work us hard in the Locks like the Nazi's did to those who were Jewish. Instead we just got dumped. I was surprised to have gotten fed.

I was just ten years old the day I got shipped. My friends and I thought it was a joke. Those that knew anyway.... A good friend of mine had a friend of her's over, he also had one of the Disorders on The List. We shared the same Disorder without knowing anything about each other, somehow we knew we had the same one. Elaina didn't catch on. She didn't understand. One of her parents made a comment while watching the news.

"The 'Polars are going to be shipped out Sunday at Eleven." The boy and I shifted uncomfortably.

"Why are they shipping the Polar Bears? Where are they being taken to? Somewhere safe from Global Warming?" Bless her soul, although now she was probably brainwashed like the rest of them. The boy rolled his eyes and shook his head.

"People with BiPolar Disorder." He said. Elaina's expression was blank and confused.

"What's that?" She asked.

"It's the maniac disease-along with the Schitzos." Her mother ignorantly said, receiving hostile glances from both the boy and I.

"Oh." Elaina said as if it were a kid learning actual facts instead of some B.S. The father clicked his tongue.

"Meredith! Don't tell her that! Everyone is BiPolar!" Wrong. "Or at least has something wrong with them. That doesn't make everyone a serial killer."

"Well, I most certainly am not."

"Yeah, you're perfect." He snapped sarcastically.

A knock on the door ended the conversation. Elaina's mother answered the door. "Jake, it's time to go." The woman at the door looked worried and the boy ran out in a hurry."

"Jake! You forgot your-" Elaina's father tried to call after him, but the two of them were already gone.

Later that day I made the mistake of telling Elaina I was BiPolar and I explained to her what it really was. At first she was afraid. "E, if I really was a killer, don't you think I would have killed you already?" It wasn't the greatest reassurance but it was good enough for her. She decided to trust me. Unfortunately, someone was also listening. Minutes later I was taken away in a car with a man.

I remember Elainda crying, begging them not to take me. I watched from the car window as Elaina's mother drew the curtains, blocking out the view from her daughter. I heard yelling. Once we got to the prison I was thrown into a cell. I got to keep my clothes until I grew out of them. Every time I grew out of my clothes they would give me a gray jumpsuit.

On Monday I saw a familiar face.