Je Suis Suffisante

Abstract

When I was a sophomore in high school, I wrote Je suis suffisante—slightly incorrect French for “I am enough”—over and over in my notebook, trying to hold back intrusive thoughts. I dug myself out of this hole when I realized I had a story to tell. For my creative project, I wrote the first three chapters of a young adult (YA) memoir, titled Je Suis Suffisante. I focused on my late middle school and early high school memories, the span of time before I had intrusive thoughts. I used humor both in my voice and scenes to show the awkwardness of being a teenager, but I also showed negative snippets of what I was experiencing because these serious topics will become more important later in the memoir. To inform my writing, I read several memoirs, including Obsessed: A Memoir of My Life with OCD by Allison Britz, Somebody’s Daughter by Ashley Ford, and Reasons to Stay Alive by Matt Haig. I tailored my memoir to YA readers by using accessible language, so readers would feel invited into my story, not pushed away. I also focused on crafting chronological scenes to engage YA readers familiar with fiction books or movies told in a chronological order. In high school, I strived to connect with people around me, so I shaped my scenes around the question: Why did I strive for connection so much? I used metaphors to show my thought process in some 2 scenes, so I could submerge readers in my experiences. My goal is for a YA audience to connect with this in the way I wish I could have connected with a book when I was a teenager.