This was written as a part of my journey with Jess Morrow’s Invincible Summer Writing eCourse in 2012. I wanted to share it here with you now.
“We all wear masks, and the time comes when we cannot remove them without removing some of our own skin.” ~André Berthiaume
Another night at the ball
Pretending to be someone I’m not
I wish it could be different
Sometimes it’s all I’ve got
I try to take it off
The mask that I wear
Hiding from everything
But it’s more than I can bear
The mask, it feels so natural
Like it’s a part of my skin
Digging the hole deeper
Of this mess that I’m in
I cried and cried
I just want to be me
I tried and tried
I just want to be free
Alas, it’s not in the cards
For freedom is not there
It is who I am
This mask that I wear
Michele loved it. I could relate entirely to this post.
I am now 31. But for the first 25 years of my life…I had a mask…A mask I couldn’t get rid of no matter how much I wanted to. Those were the most bitter years of my life. I got married in 2008 and a year after I had decided enough was enough. I had to remove that mask because it was killing me. I DID. As the quote above rightly says…It did remove some or may be a lot of my own skin. It hurt for a while…But I was finally FREE TO BE ME. Free to be my authentic self and live life on my own terms alongside a husband who means the world to me.
Thank you for this reminder Michele:)
Everybody, one way or another, wears a mask.