BECOME

One day I stopped introducing myself as the person I used to be. One day I carried an old version of myself so long it started introducing me. People remembered the mask long after I forgot why I wore it. I spent years protecting someone I had already outgrown. Become. Become. Don't return. Become. Every locked door I blamed had my fingerprints on both sides. I kept asking the mirror for permission to become someone new. The mirror never answered. It only waited. The hardest prison I ever escaped had no walls. It only had my voice telling me who I used to be. Nobody stole my future. I kept introducing it to my past. One breath. One step. One choice. One goodbye to someone I no longer needed to become. One day I stopped waiting for my life to begin. It had been waiting for me. Become. Become. BECOME! The future never called. It simply recognized me.