Aching feet support my shaking legs and bruised knees.

Gasping for air as though falling through space.

I’ve never been the size i dreamed,

Simply a tree trunk among branches.

I have more rings, but am weighed down by their tiny figures. 

 

What is the word to describe the feeling it brings me?

is this freedom? release?

Freedom of all the garbage that piles and begins grows on my shoulders.

Every day, the weight increases and slows my walk.

But, when I walk through the door, my shoulders become lighter.

When my feet meet the cold floor, there is a connection.

This cold hard ground brings me something I find nowhere else:

 

peace

 

As soon as it begins, this deep feeling races through my body.

Racing heartbeats, reflections, deep breathing.

Burns, open skin, bruises, and insides screaming to become outsides.

Pain that brings the release of the hurt and emotion inside.

It brings the passion out of the soft-spoken girl

Forgetting what lies outside of this small, cold room.

 

Then silence....

 

Its over.

Everything I've ever felt, I'm feeling now and everything I will feel don't matter.

There I stand, staring at someone who I don't recognize.

She looks how I feel; tired, done, and breathless

Is it me? 

Yes, and I'm finally proud to say it is.

Tired of everything, tired of being bearing the burdens I never needed.

I'm proud to say that this girl is me.

No longer bound, she's free to be who she wants to be.