Shadows

“Shadows are most visible when the light is brightest.”

You always think you can erase the person you used to be.

You think that growing up and getting better will somehow make the old you disappear.

Your personal history never disappears. Those pages have been written and they will follow you wherever you go. You try to crumple them up and burn them like they were never written.

But you wrote those pages.

You laid pen to paper and made that story.

You can’t just throw it out.

You think that since you’re in the light, your shadow won’t show. But it will, it will shine brighter than ever.

So you have two choices: you can look at it and smile or you can continue to disown and deplore it.

GROWTH IS ACCEPTING THE PAST, RELISHING THE PRESENT, AND BEING BETTER IN THE FUTURE.

I was ignorant.

I thought that when light finally came, my shadow would go away.

But it’s still there.

It will always be there.

It hurt at first. I didn’t want to have remnants of what I used to be. I wanted to white out that story and write over the top. Then it hit me.

THE CURRENT STORY WOULDN’T BE THE CURRENT STORY WITHOUT EVERYTHING THAT HAPPENED BEFORE.

It was all meant to happen.

Those things you hate, those memories you bury deep in your mind, they made you.

They made you better. They made you who you are.

So no matter how visible your shadow is in the light, look at it and be thankful it’s there.

What good is a character with no backstory?

You don’t fall in love with the characters from your favorite movies because of who they are in the moment. You fall in love with who they used to be. You fall in love with their story. You fall in love with the person they have become. You fall in love with every single part of them because that is what makes them who they are.

So why can’t you do that for yourself?

Why can’t you love every second of the story?

Why can’t you appreciate yourself like you can appreciate others?

Let your shadow show. Your shadow is why people like you. It’s because you’re human. You’re real. You wouldn’t be real if your shadow didn’t show in the light.

You would just be a figment of someone’s imagination in an idealistic world.

Perfect people don’t exist.

The world might make you think they do because the world wants you to think that there is a possibility for you to one day have it all.

You won’t. You won’t ever have perfection. And that’s life.

It’s true, if you hide in the dark nobody will ever see your shadow, but they will never see you either.

Come out of the dark. Be alive in the light. And show your shadow off.

It will always be there whether you like it or not.

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Thank you for reading!

My goal is to inspire self-improvement in others through my personal stories and experiences.

This is The Exploration.