Remember how you built forts out of blankets and chairs when you were little and then listened to fairy tales inside them? It gave you the greatest feeling of safety.
Remember the time you fell off your bike when you were little? You scratched your knees and it was the worst pain you ever experienced.
Or the time you won a prize with your dance team at the national championship even though you messed up the choreography? You were so honored and ashamed at the same time.
Or the time you got picked up by the police because you were in the wrong place at the wrong time and then tried to hide it from your parents? You were so scared.
What about your first breakup when you had a panic attack? You never felt so empty before.
There was a time when you graduated first from high school and then from university. And you felt proud for finishing those life goals.
You felt unbelievably happy when you moved into your first apartment.
But oh so helpless when you had to use crutches for half a year. You never felt so dependent before.
Think of how accomplished you feel now when you look at your monthly paycheck. You escaped what you were born into.
Remind yourself of how enraged you felt the first time someone openly hated you for who you are.
Don’t forget how it felt when you moved past that and stuck with who you are instead of bending over backward to fit into their worldview.
Remember how relaxed you are when you travel and don’t have all your obligations knocking on the door.
And don’t ever let go of the memory how it felt when you were hit physically for the first time. It opened up the way to feeling angry, stubborn, depressed, empowered.
Now look back. That is you.
All those experiences are you. All those feelings are you. Everything you have ever overcome makes you you.
The magnitude of what you ever felt, thought, saw, experienced, wished and hoped is you.
Now imagine, every person on earth is what they lived through. But how much do others really know about what we went through, how we felt, how we coped, how we survived?
Photo provided by K
Find my other short stories on my blog page.