THE BRIGHTEST PARTS OF MYSELF

I used to show the world the brightest parts of myself, my talents and my kind words; as I grew, my
brightest parts were not that bright anymore, and they were not so loud either, so the voice in my
anxious head made an echo and shut the front door to the brightness; so, I kept them to myself…

I carried them around not wanting them to show, until I hid them in a corner inside of a teeny tiny
box, right where no one could see them and I kept them there, longer than I thought I must say.

As I kept getting older and wiser, I decided to invite myself a friend over, to let her grow some
flowers and a lovely garden, to make it grow and make it nourish, she was kind and shut the echo
inside my head; when no one could remember the old dusty box in the corner of her home, she,
scared of the future, opened it and a brightness exploded, filled the place with light and made it
thrive, suddenly, my brightest parts were bright again; the silent echo of my anxiety and my fears
was no longer strong enough to scare the magic of the brightest parts of myself.

My friend, who made me brave enough to open the box, had some journeys of her own to make, I
wonder where she went. I keep her garden well taken care of and I scare the echo whenever it
comes back, sometimes it takes more strength than others but at the end of every day I do not let her
work to be in vain; I keep her flowers in the corner on top of an empty teeny tiny box, to make the
best out of somewhere that used to be dark.

Right before my friend left, she said, “Do not dare to turn the bright parts off, those are the parts
that will make you thrive, grow, and shine; they will bring you joy. Be loud and be proud, let your
voice be loud in a room of silence.”

She has been gone for a very long time, but she left the light on inside for me.