I Know Who You Are

by Alice Feeney

Sometimes self-preservation means staying away from the people who pretend to care about you.

The world we live in today is too loud, so that most people think they have to shout all the time just to fit in. I’ve never been great at fitting in, and when I look at the world around me, I’m not sure I even want to.

Life is a game that few of us really know how to play, filled with more snakes than ladders.

You can’t find a butterfly if you’re only looking for a caterpillar.

You’ll only fall if you forget you can fly.

We all avoid the truth when we think it might hurt too much.

The stories we tell each other about our lives are like snow globes. We shake the facts of what happened in our minds, then watch and wait while the pieces settle into fiction.

We lead the life we choose to, based on what we think we deserve, and we hold on to the memories that mean the most to us, the moments we believe shaped the life we lead now.

There’s no secret ladder to reach the stars; you have to learn to build your own, and when you fall, you have to be brave enough to start the climb again. Never look back, never look down.

We all have secrets. Secrets from ourselves as well as from others. We bury them deep down inside because we know if they were to slip out, they have the power to destroy not only us, but everyone we care about.