Having signed me to a three year contract, the label quickly had to find a use for me. Avril was exploding on the US Billboard Charts, and my album wasn’t even going to be released.

I remember sitting in the studio one day when Tanya and some of the label’s think tank people approached me with new ideas. They thought maybe I should change my look now. Capitalize on my pretty face and change the direction of my music. I even heard rumors that they wanted to steer me down the path of becoming the next Hillary Duff. At first I thought they were kidding, but when Tanya brought it up at dinner one night, and Dad agreed… I almost choked on my food.

It quickly became obvious that I would rather join a convent then become a corporate music teen bimbo.

And so new ideas were fashioned. Ideas that involved actually releasing my album… but with a stipulation. The album would be released in Japan, and I would be sent to live there for a given time, where I would get to actually tour some of their major cities.

I was told that, if I could build a solid audience in Japan, they could then branch me off to Europe and then the U.S.

How could I say no? It was a chance to show these idiots that I wasn’t a dead product. That I still had a use. And that talent as good as mine needed to be heard.

And this is where the story stops being mine. This is where we go from 1st person to 3rd person. Because everything that made me who I am was about to be taken away from me. Even my will to think as an individual.