At the core lies the truth. At the very pit of my being, there is a seed waiting to burst into life and divulge my true self to the world. I'm like a 23 year old red wood seedling waiting for the world to catch on fire so she can have a fair chance. Sheltered from the harsh, cold winds of deceit and demise as it were, I fell into the black hole - wrapped in my mind trying to perceive perfection from an angle that only I knew. You weren't there. You don't know how I was thinking. I could convince myself of anything. I could convince myself that I was invincible, that my emotions were irrefutable, that my livelihood was paid for in full. I thought I needed someone - I don't. I am an individual. I have my own needs. I am my own person. I will succeed. Do not attempt to hinder my growth for the fire has been sprung. Watch the ashes fizzle our around you, watch the plush, vulnerable, green and raw plumage emerge from the embers with a strength and contrast you did not know could exist in such a non-descript little seed. Birth. Life. Death. Rebirth. I died-but I am back again. Like a pheonix, a new breath has been bestowed upon my lungs - a new breath so strong that I feel as if I can fly high above any cloud that every existed. Yes, possibly just to fall to earth again, but that is how one knows it's real. That is how one knows that they are alive. The stark contrasts between two ever-knowing truths. There is no right without wrong, there is no open without closed. The world is there for the taking - so take it. What are you waiting for?