I have waited so long for this day to come, when the war would finally be over and the world would at last enter a new era of peace. It took awhile, I trained and studied as hard as I could, and it finally paid off. I was determined to end this war...I had to end this war.

Because I knew no matter what, I had to do whatever I could to make up for abandoning my people, abandoning those who needed me, for one hundred years.

There hasn't been a day where I don't miss Monk Gyatso. I think about him all the time. Even though he isn't here with me now, I feel like he's still guiding me, still teaching me.

It isn't easy having the entire world depend on you...there's so much pressure. And at times I felt overwhelmed, and even insecure. But in time, I realized that I couldn't run away from my responsibility, no matter how overwhelming it was. I tried to, but the cost was an entire genocide...on my own nation. 

I wasn't going to make the same mistake again.

  When the monks told me I was the Avatar, my whole life changed. My friends didn't want to hang out with me anymore because they felt that if I was on one team in a game, it would be an unfair advantage to the other team. They somehow started to feel differently about me...maybe they thought I wasn't the same. That was the moment when my friendships started to fade away. I spent most of my time training and mastering new airbending techniques with the monks, they did their hardest to prepare me for my role. That was the moment my freedom started to fade away. Monk Gyatso was the only one who always made me feel better, he was kinda like my dad. He played games and joked around with me, he even taught me the secret recipe for his creme pies. I knew that with Monk Gyatso, things might still be the same. 

But things will never be the same.

I found that out when I overheard the monks talking about sending me to the Eastern Air Temple....away from Monk Gyatso. That was the moment my life began to fade away. I was devastated, and confused. I didn't know what to do. Monk Gyatso gave me the encouragement I needed to keep going, he was the only who was always cheering me on. How was I supposed to be separated from him when I needed him so badly? And it was all because I just had to be the Avatar. 

If I wasn't, maybe I would still have my friendships. Maybe I wouldn't have to deal with the pressure of saving the world. Maybe the monks wouldn't be so hard on me. 

And maybe I'd still have Monk Gyatso.

 Though I knew it was wrong, I couldn't take it anymore and ran away. I left a letter in my room explaining how I felt, so that maybe they would understand. I didn't know where I was going-- I didn't think about where I was going. All I remember was that I feeling so many emotions at once..anger... confusion...stress. Appa and I flew somewhere in the middle of the sea, tossed around by the storm. We ended up falling into the water and almost drowning. But somehow, that activated my Avatar State, and I was able to airbend a sphere around us in an attempt to survive.

I don't remember anything else.

I apparently woke up one hundred years later in Katara's arms, feeling a little confused as to where I was. But then I realized...

Katara was from the Southern Water Tribe.

I was in the South Pole....which meant...

PENGUINS!!!

  Long story short, I made some new friends: Katara and Sokka. They decided to help me on my quest of becoming the Avatar and mastering all four elements to defeat the Fire Lord. Before we officially got started, I wanted to show them the Southern Air Temple-- my home. Katara tried to tell me about what the Fire Nation did to the Air Nomads, but I didn't really want to pay attention. I knew it was a possibility, and I was scared that it was true. So I tried to cling on to the hope that there may still be a chance and my people somehow survived. 

But it was true.

They were gone.

I learned eventually to accept it and forgive myself for my mistakes. But I knew seeing Monk Gyatso's skeleton was something that would scar my life forever. 

   After realizing I only had until the end of summer to master all four elements, I began to train with Katara in waterbending, and eventually began learning from Master Pakku. When the Fire Nation began to attack the Northern Water Tribe, I knew it was an opportunity to try and make a difference instead of thinking how things would've been if I never left my people vulnerable. Thankfully, I was able to combine powers with the ocean spirit and drive away the Fire Nation army at the last minute. In the end, the whole experience made me feel more confident that we would win this war someday. I had to at least try and believe, right?

  We left the Northern Water Tribe and went to Omashu, hoping that Bumi would be able to teach me earthbending. Turns out he and his whole city was captured by the Fire Nation. When I tried to free him, he told me that he couldn't leave his home, and that he was "listening" and "waiting" for the right moment to strike. He also advised I find an earthbending teacher who did the same. Months later, Bumi managed to liberate Omashu with his bare hands during the solar eclipse. 

Even 100 years later, he was still the mad genius I've always known and loved.

   We then went to Gaoling, still trying to find a teacher I could learn from. We ended up going to a famous underground earthbending tournament, and that's where I finally met my earthbending master.

Toph. 

Earlier I had a vision of a girl fancily dress with a flying pet boar. At the time I was unsure what it meant, and learned that I would eventually meet this girl someday. But I didn't expect her to appear in the middle of an earthbending match, not to mention be a total champion named The Blind Bandit. While she was fighting though, I noticed how she patiently sensed the movements her opponents would make, then have them plummeting out of the ring. 

She waited. And listened. 

  Pretty soon, Toph became a new member of our team. Learning earthbending was hard...it was the complete opposite of air... or water--  which both had seemed so easy to learn. At one point I got really frustrated and started to doubt myself. Finally, after a lot more practice, I was able to stand my ground and move giant boulders, thanks to Toph. It was a start, but I was learning. 

Just as I had to face boulders head on during earthbending training, we also had to face different obstacles as we journeyed on to Ba Sing Se. Like being chased by Azula and her friends, being attacked by a giant owl spirit (thanks a lot, Sokka) almost being buried with an ancient library...

But loosing Appa was the worst. 

   While Sokka, Katara, Professor Ling and I were in the ancient underground library, Toph stayed above ground with Appa, since she couldn't see and Appa was afraid of tunnels. A groups of sandbenders somehow came out of nowhere and captured him, but since Toph couldn't bend sand-- and the owl spirit was burying the library and us in it--  She was unable to rescue Appa. She managed to hold the library above ground long enough for us to escape, but once we did, the sandbenders were gone. When I realized what had happened, I was furious...and let my emotions get the best of me, to the point where I even took all of my anger and rage at Toph. I immediately regretted what I did, but somehow I couldn't hold back any longer. 

   Appa wasn't just a pet, he was the bestest and most loyal of friends I could ask for. Even before the monks wanted to separate me from Monk Gyatso, even before my air nomad friends avoided me, and even before I was told that I was the Avatar, Appa was with me and was always by my side. He was even the one who stayed with me for one hundred years, frozen in the middle of the sea. People sympathized that I was the only airbender left in the world, but nobody knew how difficult it actually was.

But Appa did. 

The monks say that the spirits of an airbender and his bison are greatly connected, forming a powerful bond between them both. Even though I knew it was true, I experienced their wisdom first-hand..in a very unexpected and frustrating way. 

   Not only was Appa gone, we were all stranded in the middle of a desert with little water and no food. And definitely no way of getting out of there. The more we searched, the more I began to feel desperate. I was too upset to sleep at night, and pretty soon I started to think everything was hopeless. Eventually, we found a sandbender's sail glider, and Katara suggested I bent air into the sail to get the glider moving. She seemed so sure we were going to make it, but at this point I was really fed up. Especially when later a group of sandbenders accused us of stealing the glider when we actually found it buried in a pile of sand. But Toph soon recognized the voice of one of the group members as the one who stole Appa... and that was when I couldn't take it anymore. 

  I immediately lost control of my emotions and entered the Avatar state, my tattoos and eyes glowing, but my expression of pure hatred and rage. I probably would've destroyed everyone if Katara hadn't calmed me down. When I started to levitate off the ground, she grabbed my arm, pulled me back down, and held me close. As soon as she did I came out of the Avatar State, my fury transforming into feelings of sadness, loneliness, and helplessness. I felt like I was loosing everything. 

After putting up with Long Feng and his conspiracies, I was finally reunited with my bison again. Words alone can't express how much I really missed him. 

   Things started to look up in Ba Sing Se, but destiny again decides to throw more problems at us. The Earth King was hesitant to join forces at first,  Azula planned a coup and kidnap Katara and Zuko, but then Zuko decided to go on Azula's side (no comment..) right in the middle of our huge fight deep in the crystal catacombs underground. With two very advanced firebenders and a large group of Da Li agents, things were heating up fast. Katara and I knew instantly that we couldn't take them all on. It was obvious that I had to go into the Avatar State in order to defeat them. 

But it was easier said that done. 

I eventually learned that in order to have a better control of myself and my actions while in the Avatar State, I had to open all of my chackra's (the different energies flowing in my mind and body)...but I couldn't open the chackra of cosmic energy.

Because in order to do so, I had to let go of my feelings for Katara. 

  Every moment we spent together, my growing love for her was getting harder and harder to ignore. Her inspiration, dedication, and support played a huge part in preparing myself to take on my Avatar responsibilities. She was always the one encouraging me the most when I felt like I had reached my lowest point.  She was always the one who stayed strong and kept believing in me when things seemed hopeless. 

And she was the one who saved my life after I was shot with lightning by Azula. 

I tried...I really tried to let her go-- and as I did I began to feel the power of the Avatar State swelling inside me. I levitated of the ground, my eyes and tattoos glowing with all of the knowledge and spiritual energy from the previous Avatars of 10,000 years. But it was at this moment where Azula saw her moment and striked.

The memory is hazy, but I still remember the painful shock the lightning brought to my nerves. I soon started to feel my entire life slipping.

After I regained  consciousness a few weeks later, Sokka told me Katara had used her veil of water from the Spirit Oasis Master Pakku had given her to save my life, but he also told me the entire world believed I was dead. 

I remember feeling angry, desperate, and frustrated yet again. Because I had let the whole world down by abandoning them for 100 years. And now I had let the whole world down by "dying" and not defending Ba Sing Se like I was supposed to. People had put their hopes on me....they had faith in me....they believed in me...

And I felt like I had completely failed them. 

  Not only that, I brought my own friends into all this mess. They were risking their lives and were almost killed multiple times because of my actions and my mistakes. Still, even though I felt unbearably guilty for doing this to them, I needed them more than ever. 

And plus, there was no getting rid of them... they wouldn't let me go on by myself. 

We snuck into the Fire Nation to prepare for the invasion...only to completely lose ( as Toph said earlier...THAT was annoying), but believe it or not we actually did get something out of it. 

  I pretty much mastered the basics of bending water and earth, and of course mastered air. But I still needed to learn firebending in order to defeat Ozai. The problem was finding a teacher. And it didn't looking like Jeong Jeong would be showing up anytime soon. Then out of nowhere, Zuko appears while we're hiding out in the Western Air Temple. I have to admit, we didn't respond to him well (sorry, Zuko), but a person's past actions can definitely cloud your judgement of them. 

But they can also express more than words ever could. Like when Zuko tried to defend us after Combustion Man nearly blew us off the entire cliff, almost being killed in the process. In the past he only wanted to capture me and hold me prisoner to regain his honor from his father, but we realized after he tried to help that he genuinely wanted to be apart of our team, and help me with my mission. 

And it was really cool when Zuko and I went to a lost civilization owned by the ancient Sun Warriors and saw actual dragons...

(Sorry, I have to stop here and write the "life lessons" I've learned...Sokka told me to hurry up because he says I'm taking too long and he wants to write his part...)

Anyway, saying that I've learned so much is an understatement-- I feel like I have learned more that I every could in a thousand years. 

From airbending, my main element, I've learned to let my spirit free and find contentment with everything I had. To favor peace and understanding over chaos and distrust, be quick and flexible in situations, and find a path for least resistance. 

From waterbending, I've learned to let my energy-- and my emotions, flow calmly like water.. to be more aware of my surroundings and the environment around me. I've also learned to use waterbending to turn every defense into offense during combat, which is similar to airbending. 

From earthbending, I've learned that I needed to face every obstacle head-on, be it rock or in general. To wait patiently for an opportunity and that I shouldn't put all my energy into one single strike. I've also learned to use my other senses, besides my sight and hearing, to have a better connection with the element. Basically...be a rock-- steady and unbreakable. 

And from firebending, I've learned that I needed to exercise self-restraint, and though fire can be a very dangerous element, you need motivation to create that first spark. Just like you need to work hard to achieve, and in time, your efforts will slowly blossom into something beautiful. 

  I've also learned that even though you end up with a responsibility you don't like or aren't good at, you'll need to embrace it either way. Your efforts might seem pointless at times, but your dedication and willingness to work hard and make things as they should be will definitely earn you appreciation in the future. 

Lastly, I've learned that things can seem really horrible, maybe even unbearable at first...but in the end it might turn up actually good for you if you have hope, faith, and determination.

(One last thing: I've learned that really good friends, who'll stay by you through thick and thin and are willing to experience everything with you, can become your family at one point too.)