Brittany Coppinger

I loved "Mountain" by Eli Clare. From the very beginning, this story was very strong. I love that it started out with a metaphor. I feel like that really gave the story a creative beginning and made me want to read more. There are a lot of topics that i think are important to talk or read about, but most people don't because they feel like they have heard it before or it just isn't interesting, or it is too painful to talk/read about. But i think that "breaking the ice" with a metaphor is a great way to ease people into the topic of disabilities. For people without them, its hard to put ourselves in their shoes. We think we are, but we will never know the pain and the frustration and the embarrassment that Clare describes in her short story. You think you know, and then you read a story like Clare's and you realize you have no idea. I think that the worst possible thing we can do in life is to think that we know what people are going through because we know about their condition, or we think we know them. Because we never will truly know and we cause the most pain when we pretend that we do.