After reading through the article on “I Once Was Miss America” I was able to note upon some distinct things that I had seen or related to with Roxane Gay. The main thing, based upon the article, was that like so many in their youth, Roxane Gay was able to connect herself with a piece of literature. She was able to whisk herself away to this sensational place of Sweet Valley, and even herself take on the persona of its fictional inhabitants. She did this, in order to escape the weirdness and social caste that she had found herself in during this time period. She was the only African American girl within her school, and felt alone with no one she could accurately connect herself with or relate to except with the characters of Sweet Valley. Like Roxane, many of us within our youth found ways to escape the harshness of reality through many venues. These could be through comics, books, or movies. Even I myself have sat down on the couch and day-dreamed or reverted to watching the Batman movies to escape the crud that is life. I was able to see myself as some vigilante of the night, saving Gotham with one gadget and roundhouse kick at a time. It made me feel empowered, as if I was something more than I was being myself; and this is the same way Roxane Gay had felt when connecting herself to one of the Wakefield sisters or perhaps Vanessa Williams, the Miss America herself. In the overall scheme of things, literature has the ability to empower, to ignite a spark within us all, no matter the genre or no matter the character. All it takes is an open mind, a thirst for reading, and the ability to dream that you are more than what is written on your page of the book.