Said the newly confident girl to her peers:
At first I used to care for the way you defined me,
but then I realized that it was the way I viewed myself that mattered,
And that it didn’t really matter what you thought of me,
but rather who I felt I could be.
I get it,
I am irregular,
I read books and talk to fishes,
And you think me an oddball trapped in the mindset of that girl who wants to be popular,
Who would break apart like tiny pieces of a puzzle if you didn’t like her,
Who believed that your rejection defined her,
Who was as constant as a wave breaking upon a shore,
Always breaking and recreating herself, striving to be more…
You.
Look at me.
I've been
Constantly mending,
chameleon like skin changing,
Looking in the mirror and finding
A stranger.
And thinking it was better
To wear the skin of another,
I would commit unspeakable crimes daily,
Killing myself to assume another identity.
So dependent was I on what you thought of me,
I locked myself into a jail of your opinion and handed you the key.
Expecting that you would set me free.
I get it.
Definition of an addict,
This is it:
Me, coming back to you desperate for that daily fix.
Rolling up my sleeves, exposing my veins,
Your every patronizing gesture numbing the pain
I tried to dull inside me.
I once wished I could change out my blood so that your opinion could flow through me.
And it was only when I began to see that my reality wasn’t built on a foundation of your views
That I gave myself the freedom to choose
To be me.
And it was only then that I felt free to embrace my eccentricity,
grab my pen,
don my creativity,
and go on a wild journey through my mind,
Leaving the discarded bits of your opinion behind.
Now, when I wake up, I look in the mirror and ask myself, who will you be?
And the answer is always: I choose to be me.
I tap into the innermost parts of me ,
Top up on my creative energy
And I head into battle- not with you- it's Me vs. Me vs Me.
Past, Present and Future me.
Now see, don’t be offended, it’s not personal. Well, it is for me.
But I’m still cool with you.
I’m just choosing instead to be.... me.
Hi friends,
I'm back again this week and changing up the tone a bit for this poem, which is actually a piece I wrote some time ago for a chapbook.
Many young people face peer pressure and sometimes don personas to fit in with their peers when they don't need to. Everyone wants to be liked, everyone wants to fit in. But we must be careful, in our quests for acceptance, to ensure that we don't lose ourselves in the process.
I hope you enjoy it.
Have a great weekend, everyone.
