I am trekking through a vast forest.

Wind is blowing in my face,

so much so that it's hard to stand.

But I continue on.

Why do I keep going?

The trees are roaring,

yelling at me to leave.

Creatures of all kinds are biting at me,

Growling at me,

Hissing at me.

I am holding the weight of all my friends,

Of all my family,

Of everyone that depends on me to continue on.

I continue on.

I'm hurting,

I'm bleeding.

It's so hard to continue on,

But I do so anyway.

Why?

I don't know.

Why must I go through all of this?

Why do I go through all of this?

Because...

...

I can't find a good reason, other than for self-preservation.

...

So I let myself stop.

I let myself fall.

I start falling,

falling,

breaking.

The winds are no longer a problem.

The trees are still roaring at me, but I don't hear them.

The creatures are still biting me, but I don't feel them.

I'm falling,

Into the deep abyss of nothingness.

I'm breaking.

I don't care.

...

Then something unexpected happens.

All of the things that I was carrying,

My friends,

My family,

They start breaking too.

I don't want them to break.

I never wanted them to break.

As I fall into the void, they start falling into it too.

I can't stop falling.

I don't want to fall anymore.

I scream,

I yell,

I cry into the void,

"LET US GO!"

The void replies back, calm and collected,

"Is this not what you wanted?

You never had to fall in the first place.

You should have known that this was going to happen."

"I didn't know! You are the one that made me think that it wasn't!"

"I am not.

You are.

You are the one who made the creatures bite you.

You are the one who made the wind blow so hard in your face.

You are the one who made it so hard for you to continue forward.

You are the one who decided to enter the forest."

I realize that he's right.

I realize that I did all of this not only to myself, but to everyone around me.

So, I stand back up.

I continue forward again.

But this time is different.

Instead of heading deeper into the forest,

I leave.