Dear Suzanne Collins,
I loved your trilogy, The Hunger Games. I really felt connections between the characters and myself. Even though my case isn’t nearly as bad as Katniss’s, my dad and I haven’t been able to see each other face to face in about six years. For a long time it was my mom, my sister, my dog and I. I have been to many different schools, and unlike Katniss, I make friends very easily. But sometimes, there is immediate change, like when Katniss is torn away from her loved ones as a tribute for The Hunger Games. I moved from the smallest state into the biggest state, Alaska. It wasn’t bad, I have a lot of family up here, but only one true blue friend, Kendra. At a new school, most of the kids were very mean. Finally, I met someone nice and we became friends. We even lived on the same street! We were very good friends all throughout the school year and the summer, but at summer’s end I changed schools again. I tested into the HG (highly gifted) program and moved houses too. I also discovered that two people I had met from summer camps were in my class. I made more friends easily because we all had a ton in common. Almost everyone in the HG program had been bullied and/or moved multiple times. A lot of us do competitive sports (I do swimming, that’s one reason why I favor district four and Finnick). Moving to this school reminds me of Katniss transferring to District 13, a place she didn’t even know existed. But it all turns out alright, I have many kind, funny, awesome, smart, and fun friends. Around March last year, I started to read The Hunger Games. I fell in love with the whole trilogy, especially because parts of Katniss’s life and parts of my life relate closely, like if you take two copies of very similar pictures and align them just right with a light shining underneath both papers. Then summer break came and my sister, my mom, Kendra, and I went camping. She seemed different, she would text and talk on her phone a lot and I felt like I was insignificant or she was mad at me for a random reason. I felt as if she was another person. I bet that this feeling of uncertainty, sadness, and a bit of anger towards Kendra during and after the camping trip was what Katniss felt when Peeta, her best friend, was hi-jacked by the Capitol and he hated her. I haven’t seen her since that camping trip but I guess that’s probably because summer break was over and we both have very packed schedules. Being in school kind of helped heal my hurt feelings about Kendra and I hope we can go skiing together soon.

A great thing that has recently happened is my dad has finally come up to see me. I got to hang out with him, and we worked on a structures project for school (it wasn’t too hard because we are both artists). We had loads of fun. So I guess that through all hardships, Katniss and I both made it to happy endings.