They say that everything in your life is a choice.

  But was it my choice to have those thoughts?

  Was it my choice to forever keep my lips sealed?

  Was it my choice to look the way I do?

  Was it my choice for people to tell me I was an answer sheet, an object to their disposal?

  Was it my choice for the person in the mirror to say these things?

  I never chose any of these things, yet they still impact me.

  What I choose to do is mutter under my breath about the lunatics of our society.

  I choose to work hard because without it I learned I would be nothing.

  I choose to dream of the world I want to live in, even if I live in this world.

  Enjoying this book? Seek out the original to ensure the author gets credit.

  And maybe one day, in the world I do dream of, the person in the mirror will forgive all my sins and my imperfections, and what I have done to get me to this point in my life.

  But right now, that individual isn't here yet, and will continue to berate me until the mirror shatters and my reflection blurs and all the power I had in my life returns to me.

  I do wish that day shall come and liberate me from the person in the mirror, because it hurts so much more when you own reflection maims and isolates you from your own body, rather than those that huddle around the lunch table as you slowly disassociate with their society.

  And it hurts so much more when you hear their eyes following you at all the ends of your cowlicks, the scars of your ankles, and the way your face has become as fake and artificial as the food in the cafeteria.

  And it hurts so much more when I miss those times when I could actually look people in the eye without my vision clouding over.

  And it hurts when I miss when the people I loved didn't leave me in fear of being hurt.

  And sometimes, because of this, I ask myself if the world truly seems new.

  Because if there is nothing in my life to experience more of, I wish to see beyond the light at the end of the tunnel.

  I wish to escape this washing machine cycle that runs and cleanses my heart and mind.

  I wish to feel that portion of me missing, not by choice, but because of other's choices, because I choose to live in this world.