My world.

i've grown up in a world with no breaks. in a world where challenges continue to appear in front of you and where mountains you must climb simply grow bigger and bigger. i've grown up in a world where people are defined by only their accomplishments or their lack thereof.  in a world where futures are based on pasts. in a world where there is no time to breathe and lie in the warm sand and taste the frigid air on your tongue when you first walk out the door on a snowy morning. in a world where making a mistake is synonymous with failure. in a world that has no escape, in a world that doesn't ever give in, in a world that doesn't ever make compromises. i've grown up in a world that is painful.  and i am young, i know. i know i am blind to much of the world and that my version of a painful life is painless to others. but the world should not be painful for anyone, this i also know. there should be time to stay up late with roommates watching and laughing at the t.v. shows that only come on at 2 a.m., time to bake cinnamon scented cookies that fill the house with a warmth like no other, time to run through grass with bare feet and not care that your soles get calloused. i believe that life should be taken at a long, leisurely pace, that everyday should be a new start, that your past is the past, that the world should be full of love. i might not know much, but i know that the world certainly lacks love. if there is one thing i am certain of in this strange universe, it's that. there is almost nothing as beautiful as being embraced when everything feels dark and watching the sun come out again and that beautiful experience stems from love. love is soft, love gives up all earthly goods and achievements in order to see you shine, love lets you try again, love lets you breathe.  i want this world, this world full of love, not pain. i will love and love and love, forgive when i shouldn't, eat cupcakes and paint friends' nails with glittery pink nail polish. i will practice a life full of sunny days and dog walks in the park in hopes that the world will echo me. in hopes that, one day, love will touch all the surfaces in the universe and shine from everyone's glowing face to their painted toes.