Flicker

Let me tell you a story.

There once was this little girl, who illuminated the room with just her smile. This light was so powerful that it helped bring light to other people’s darkness.

As the little girl grew up, people started to envy her brightness, so they did everything in their power to shut it down.

People come and go, each of them telling her to lower her light. They started criticizing every small aspect of how she looked or who she was.

This is not to say people around her didn’t love her, they just weren’t prepared for the bright smile and laugh that blinded them.

Unconsciously everyone around her started making snarky comments about the little ball of sunshine, even the people closest to her. Slowly, anyone who came close to her and left took a bit of her brightness, and one day she was no longer a ray of yellow sunshine she was a dim gray cloud.

Startled by her sudden change, people around her, even the ones who took away the light, told her to bring it back. Maybe they just like taking things away from her. But the damage was done, there was nothing they could do.

But as the years went by the girl, not so little anymore, realized she was the only one who could bring the light back. So, she tried asking for help. Sadly, she asked the wrong people because either they wouldn’t listen or they would tell her that it was normal, and she should just stop worrying. And once again, she gave up, finding comfort in her darkness.

Some days were worse than others, each time bringing her down more and more. Then one day, realizing how everything had changed so suddenly, she was tired of letting others push her to the edge. She was tired of being unhappy, she wanted to smile again. So, she fought.

That’s when she found a flicker of hope inside her that showed her that one day, maybe, she could bring her brightness back. Each and every time she fought, that little flicker seemed to grow a tad bigger. Until one day, she was finally free from the arms of darkness.

That is when she realized, only she had the power to bring back what she had lost. She was the only one who could really control how she felt, because something can’t really affect her if she doesn’t give it the opportunity.

Just as Goi Nasu, a famous Japanese author, said “An entire sea of water can’t sink a ship unless it gets inside the ship. Similarly, the negativity of the world can’t put you down unless you allow it to get inside you.”

So, if you ever feel like this little girl did, just remember that there is always light in the darkness, you just have to search in the right places.