Shades of Me

What can make a person smile? I say, it’s colors. I see all sorts of colors daily and it’s such a brilliant way to live. I can describe the many shades, with these words; bold, bright, bleached, brash, clean, colorful, cool, dark, festive, flat, rich and shiny. Hello, my name is Lian and I work in the nail salon. Our salon is quite colorful now, but a few years ago, it was dull and colorless. Everyone who walks in this shop is surprised that it's bright bold but elegant. My parents own the shop and I help out once a while. Most of the time, I want to come to the nail shop after school but my parents have forbidden me. They state I have to focus on school and that the salon is a distraction. My eyes are fixed on the color of life and my heart is full of hues. Everyone tells me, when I see colors my eyes lit up. I think colors bring out different characters for each person and it tells a story about themselves. I love colors or bright colors because they bring a smile to my face and brighten my day. Mom says she has never seen anyone who gets so excited about colors. Girls my age, should be looking at boys, shopping or are into music. I’m different in a sense. I rather read articles on the history of colors or play with the mixology of colors. Everywhere we go, there are colors. If you think about it, we are all the Hue of life. Our outer appearance, our eyes, our hair, the clothes we wear and our accessories. We can’t escape it, so let us embrace this wonderful Hue of life.My fascination with colors started when I was only five years old. I remember my parents trying to figure out what color to paint my new room. They bought several containers of paint and they could not agree on any of the colors. I decided to just mix the colors myself, while they argue. This was my first time experience with colors and it excited me to see the results. My dad was very upset but I had the biggest smile on my face. After a few minutes, they both figured out what I did and I was wearing my favorite color. In my dreams, I see colors all around me and they chase me in my dreams. Like I said, colors bring a smile to everyone's faces.

My life is a colorful life and I’m the happiest when I discover a new color. When I walk into the nail salon, my face lights up with bitter sweet joy. I have a system and I use it daily. Sounds weird right, I know but it's serious business. I wonder if anyone else thinks like me. Maybe I’ll run into a person like that one day. The color that you wear can determine if you are happy or sad. It can showcase our achievements or our struggles. When I realized this I decided to initiate a system and it has worked well for me. I even have a name for it, “ PDUR.” When a person walks into the salon, I put them under one of the categories. The “P” stands for the pure at heart, “D” stands for danger with a power struggle, “U” stands for the Urban trendsetters and “R” stands for the radical creative thinkers. This is an unusual system, but it worked out for me in the past. Many of my family and coworkers think it's nonsense. The weird part of this whole thing, is that everyone in the nail salon is using this system now. Genius, but they still laugh at me. Let me give you an insight on how “PDUR” works and then you can decide if I’m the crazy radical one. For example, a young 26 year old college student walks into the salon and this is where my face lights up. Everyone who walks into the salon is my potential victim of this malice twisted system I created. Oh getting back to this student, you think she would fall under the “P” and “U”, which is the pure at heart or the Urban trendsetters. You have it wrong and indeed she actually falls under the category of “D.” This stands for danger and has a power struggle. Under this category, there is a lack of confidence but she’s showing a radiant of success. I also take under consideration how she comes across as she enters the shop. Today, this customer is a little sassy, most likely she will walk out with a maroon type of color or in this salon we call it “red velvet.” This color displays power and ambition, along with the confidence she needs for the remaining of the week. For me, when they ask me what I’m thinking it’s always the different shades of hue. The hues come to me and I can mix and match any colors in my mind. I sometimes wonder if I will see a new color or have I seen all of them. When I look up to the sky, I wonder what it would be like if it was a different color, rather than blue or grey. I can only imagine this in my mind. Seeing new colors will just make me the happiest person in the salon. Dad and mom were a little worried about me for a while. I would only speak about colors and it kinda scared them. I keep my deepest fascination of colors in my diary and I only display this through my smile. My next victim just walked in. I’m smiling like an idiot but my smile is crooked. This is a new one and she’s going to challenge me. My mind is mixing all sorts of colors and I'm getting chills thinking about it. She looks like a 40’sh soccer mom but she has an attitude of a rhinoceros. I wonder if this is going to be my biggest challenge of the day?