Discovering Self Worth
Location
Some days drug on
Slower than a snail scraping across a plate of salt
A symphony of nails on a chalkboard
Serenading my every move
Reminding me
I quickly learned how to cleanse
The wounds left by biting remarks
With my own soothing inner monologue
“You are better than that
You deserve to be happy
You have worked hard for everything you have
Do not let them make you see yourself as
Less
You are
Enough”
Suiting up in armor of sarcastic remarks
And jaded smiles became a
Daily routine
It didn’t take too long for me to
Make some enemies
And lose some friends
Feeling like an outcast didn’t stop me from
Leaving my mark on a place that
Didn’t want me to begin with
Other days, however, flew swiftly
Carrying me through on a current of melodic laughter
Carving canyons of light in my days
With each heartfelt tinkle
I used my armor to protect me
As I found ways to go places
Many had never even
Considered
The fact that I was unwanted made it
Immensely easy for me to work my way
Out of there in the coming year
My days became embellished with
Fancy words like
“School Based Scholar” and “Co-Op”
But really,
I was out
College, Which I had been
Begging/praying/yearning for
Became my escape from the mundanity
And isolation that had become
My daily life
Work became my safe place
My home away from home
Where I could show my strengths
And work on my weaknesses
Without being ridiculed for either
I did, and continue to, encounter the unfamiliar
And I tackled it with guns a blazing
And with an open mind
This is the year I truly discovered
What I was made of
The year that I discovered
I am who I am because of what I’ve done and
That
Is okay