If This Gets Out

by Sophie Gonzales

It’s funny how time and space cast a rosy glow over memories, making them seem less painful than they were in reality.

Once you’ve learned shame, it settles into your skin like a tattoo. You can cover it up but you can’t scrub off the sense of inadequacy.

That’s the thing about being poor, it never really leaves you. I still weigh the worth of every dollar, even though I don’t need to do that anymore. My first impulse is to get the cheapest thing available because it’s just the same.

At the crux of it, everyone wants the world to see them as they are. The truth isn’t the problem. The problem is that the world doesn’t always make the truth safe for us to share.