The way my Senior Composition teacher suggested we go about writing our short stories was to think of the things we fear, and write about those. Garanos had been such an important character to me that parts of myself have definitely gone into her. One of my greatest fears was having my dreams and ambitions taken from me, my will compromised, and to a point, it still is a fear of mine. Another was my fear of being touched on someone else's terms. My body was something to be guarded jealously, and be damned if I shut myself away from people in the process. This mindset changed as I grew older, though still present in Garanos.

Garanos herself reminds me of an interesting time in my life. I created her sometime in the summer of 2002, shortly after I'd come out of my shell in high school, and I was changing every which way.