Halls. Long walls, windowless, and seeming to stretch for miles. There are people. Some familiar, and some strangers. Each face, friend and foe, I am afraid of. Whispers bounce off the endless walls and into my ears like voices in a Fun House.

A Fun House. Yes. These walls are like a Fun House.

Before you enter you have a tingle of excitement. “This will be fun,” I tell myself. Once you enter you are surrounded by mirrors and sounds. You run around in circles but you cannot escape the feeling of being trapped. You are by yourself but you know you are not alone. You feel the eyes on you. They burn holes in your back.

Yes. These walls are like a Fun House.

No one know knows, yet they think they do. They think they know who I am. Have they asked? No. They assume. They listen to all the voices in the halls except for my own. My voice is that of an insect. You can hear it lightly buzzing near you, but you do not make the effort to listen to it. I am a bug to them. Something easy to squish. To play with. The people in these halls have their magnifying glass up to the sun and they have the ray of fire pointed at me. I am their bug. I am their prey.

I am quiet, yet I am loud on the inside. I am shy, yet I am bouncing with personality.

These people do not know who I am, but they will. They will know me. They will know my story. They will know my confidence, the confidence they crushed years ago. They tore it down, but I have built it back up. My head is high. The only time I walk with my head down is to admire my shoes, my shoes that I wear as if life is my runway.

Those halls, those endless, long walls boxed me in. They were my prison. But now they are my runway.

I have made my way out of the Fun House stronger than I could have ever imagined. My smile is large and my personality is boisterous. I no longer dance in the rain of sadness, but I dance in the sunflower fields of blissfulness. My song is upbeat and no longer slow. I pull the curtain to show my true self, no longer imprisoned inside the walls of my mind.

I am happy.

I am free.

I am me.  

#SlamBehindTheCurtain