I really enjoyed this one. A deep POV written well can make a good storyline into a fantastic story. I'm not sure I completely understood her way of thinking, but I think that's part of the appeal, that the way of processing seems so foreign to me. At the same time, I could grasp some parts of her alienation. I tend to get irritated by the expected exchanging of pleasantries in conversation because it's so pointless and ephemeral, so I felt like I could really empathize with her there.
The final line of the story was really well done. It was clear from the rest that she meant something much more when she said she didn't want more shoes, but likely her parents won't understand. Her dad will still push to get her the surgery, claiming its for her own good, and she will have trouble articulating it in a way they understand because they are looking only at the veneer of the words, not the shades of meaning underneath.
One thing I wondered during the story: is this some kind of altered world where evolution has been kicked up a notch? It said that the mosquitoes had already evolved in just a few years to outmaneuver the shoulder-lasers, and the plants likewise had evolved in just a few years. I thought it was fine that the story didn't comment overmuch on this oddity, and I think it added interesting subtext to the story. She is very interested in evolutionary offshoots and dead-ends because she thinks she might BE one. Like the first branch of the evolutionary tree that was capable of speech, she is misunderstood by her peers, and maybe she won't be the fittest to alter future human evolution, but maybe like speech, in the future her way of thinking will eventually become the most prevalent.
I thought the description of the brain procedure was very interesting, like bending a sapling to influence the stance of the adult tree.
And she had some very interesting insights into parent-child relationships, about how it doesn't make sense to expect the next generation to be like your generation. Society evolves, and trying to stand in the way doesn't really make sense. No generation is like their parent's generation.