Discovering who you are as a person is one of life’s greatest challenges. In several cases, this is more difficult for some than it is for others; and this is the case of Anne Ringfield. Anne was fifteen years old when she discovered something about her life that would change who she is forever, literally. Life has its unexpected twists and turns and you can never be completely prepared for them, and Anne discovered this the hard way.
Fifteen years back, Anne was adopted, unknowingly, into a loving, caring, Greek family. She was loved beyond belief and never thought anything strange about her relationship with them. They went on vacation every year to Mexico, where they bonded as any other family would. They celebrated birthdays and holidays together and always had a splendid time. Anne was an only child, but was extremely close to her cousin Sam. Sam was the same exact age as Anne, in fact the scary part was, they had the same birthday. They always thought of this as creepy, but it grew on them as a special day to share together. Every Christmas, Anne and Sam had a tradition of looking through old family photos to see how much everyone had changed and grown throughout the years. They enjoyed doing this and it sometimes got emotional seeing how fast time was flying. Every year, they came to one picture where all of the cousins were sitting by the pool in Mexico, when Anne and Sam were only five years old. They remembered back to when they would splash around in the small, refreshing baby pool together , and when they would play hide and go seek in the lobby of the hotel they stayed in. The memories they had from Mexico were among their greatest, and this one picture always brought those memories back. Through the years, more and more photos were taken, which resulted in more pictures to be stored in the special box that Anne and Sam looked through every year. The only thing this special box contained was pictures, or so they thought.
Three years ago, on Christmas Eve at Sam’s house when the girls were fifteen years old, Sam and her found a stack load of papers in the box that they had never seen on any of the previous Christmas’. There had to have been about one hundred papers in the stack, it was extremely heavy and there were signatures on almost every page. Sam was the one who found these papers at the bottom of the box, and her and Anne examined them right away. As they read through the papers, they saw the word, “adoption,” on almost every page. Sam and Anne couldn’t believe their eyes, they didn’t think that anyone in their family was adopted. They flipped through the packet of papers and finally came to a page entitled “Rachael.” There wasn’t any Rachael in their family, so both of the girls were extremely confused. As they were reading the “Rachael” page, Anne’s mom began to walk over to them. They quickly shut the packet and shoved it back into the bottom of the box. They acted as if nothing had happened when Anne’s mother told them it was time for Christmas dinner.
Days passed and Anne and Sam still wondered about the papers they had found. In their spare time, they both looked through old pictures trying to depict a Rachael; no one rang a bell. After talking on the phone every night with Sam about these mysterious papers, Anne decided to be the braver person and ask her parents if they knew anything about this.
That night at dinner, while enjoying a delicious meal of juicy steak and hot mashed potatoes, Anne asked her parents if they knew of any Rachael in their family that was adopted. Both of her parents looked at each other with fear in their eyes. They both replied that they weren’t aware of any Rachael in their family. Anne was still not completely convinced that her parents didn’t know anything about this, so she continued bring up this topic throughout the next couple of days.
The next few days had been extremely odd in Anne’s house. Her house, which was normally kept neat and tidy, had turned disastrous. There were papers all over the place, dirty clothes all over the newly stained rugs, and grime and fingerprints all over the mirrors. Anne's parents hadn’t been themselves, and the way their house looked showed it. Anne was getting nervous, so her and Sam planned a get together to talk about everything that had been going on. Sam came over Anne’s house as she normally would once a week, but this get together was different. They had to figure out the meaning behind the papers they had found and why Anne’s parents had been acting so strange. Most importantly, they had to find out who this mysterious Rachael was.
After hours of looking through old pictures and eliminating everyone they definitely knew in their family, Anne and Sam didn’t find out anything. They were losing all hope in finding an answer and didn’t know what to do. This was until Anne’s parents came into Anne’s room and politely asked Sam to leave. This was extremely strange because Sam would usually end up staying at Anne’s house for days, and Anne’s parents wouldn’t mind at all. This must have been important. Once Sam’s parents came and picked her up, Anne was told that she had to have a talk with her parents. She walked down the stairs, her heart pounding like a drum, extremely nervous for what she was about to hear. Once she got to the dining room where her dad was waiting for her and her mom to join him at the table, she felt her heart drop.
More nervous than she had ever been, her parents began to talk. Her father started by pulling out the packet of papers that her and Sam had found on Christmas Eve. Her father looked at these papers, and his eyes began to fill up with tears. Anne didn’t know what to do, she had never seen her father cry before. Before she could ask why he was crying, he started to rant. He told Anne how she had been adopted when she was only two days old. Her real mother gave birth to her at the age of sixteen and couldn’t handle taking care of a baby yet. He explained how he and his wife always wanted to tell Anne that she had been adopted, but they were worried she would feel secluded from them. Two minutes of talking, and Anne’s life was completely changed. She had plenty of questions going through her mind, but she was in such shock she was left speechless. Tears ran down her eyes, her mom’s eyes, and her dad’s eyes; the three of them had never been so emotional.
Right when Anne thought all of the news was over, her mother began to speak. At this point, all of their eyes were as red as fire due to all of the tears they had shed. Her mother told her that her and her father found something out from the packet of papers that neither of them were aware of. Her mother explained that once her and her husband decided that they weren’t going to tell Anne about her being adopted, they were going to keep the adoption papers at Sam’s house in the secret box so that no one would find them. They had always been hidden until they were moved into a separate box with all of the pictures. Neither of Anne’s parents read through the adoption papers after the adoption, they figured all was set in stone and all was well; they thought wrong.
The “Rachael” page flustered both of Anne’s parents, they had no idea why the name Rachael would even appear in Anne’s adoption papers. They explained to Anne why they had been such a wreck the past few days and why the house was so disastrous and filled with so many papers. They said that they were going through every single paper from the adoption in order to see why the name Rachael appeared in the packet. They came to the conclusion, that they adopted the wrong girl.
Anne was hysterically crying; her whole life flashed before her yes. Everything she had done was never really for her. She was living the life of someone else for fifteen years and no one knew the real her. Her parents couldn’t stop crying, they had ruined this poor girl’s life. They thought back to the day of the adoption and realized that who they thought was Anne, was really Rachael; and who they thought was Rachael, was really Anne. This meant that someone else in the universe was living her life not knowing her true identity either. “Anne,” wondered who the real Anne could be. This was right before Sam called her on the phone and told her that she discovered another packet of papers in her room, and they contained a page entitled “Anne.” Another discovery had been made, Sam was adopted too, and she was the true Anne. The girl that lived the life of Anne for fifteen years found out that her cousin was actually her biological sister, and that her true identity was Rachael. This explained a lot to the girls, their shared birthdays weren’t coincidental. Her whole life spun around within the matter of an hour, and she couldn’t seem to comprehend it all.
After calming down about the fact that her so called cousin was the true Anne, and she was the true Rachael, the real Rachael spent some time thinking. She realized that life is a crazy ride, and sometimes you must take paths that you never expected taking. Whether you expected to take them or not, the hidden person inside of you is truly always ready.