I repeatedly fail to give myself the credit I deserve, and I am positively certain I am not alone in this mistake. So often we willingly forget our past selves truly existed, separate them from the present, refuse to venture back and bask in the reality of times gone by, and in doing so, we negatively affect our self-perception. Remembering every part of yourself is overwhelmingly important, even if those memories feel like a knife twisting in your stomach, or make you squeeze your eyes tightly shut in a futile defense against your own thoughts, or cause intense emotions to flood back and pour out of your eyes. These moments, all of them, created the person you are now. The joyful, the miserable, the pretty, the ugly. Each one makes you up into you. To rid your mind of any one completely is to rid yourself of yourself.

A few years ago, I published this post, challenging myself and...

it seems like too long since i last wrote creatively, and not mainly for the purpose of preserving memories and logging important occurrences in my life. i find it important to remember everything. i want to look back and see my past in beautifully vivid color, to dwell on the life of before, reminisce, as well as take pride in how far i have come. when i write by hand in my journal for the aforementioned reasons, i do not attend to the words as i do when i type them out. the pen moves with my thoughts, but in a way it is a thoughtless account of the day’s events.

i know i find these accounts important, but in reality they do not help me grow in the way i long for them to. i want to write beautifully and willingly, not just laboriously. i want to flesh out my thoughts and explore my own mind and become more in tune with myself. i want to know more about the world through my eyes and...

It takes like seven years for every cell in your body to die and be replaced. Despite the amount of time it takes for the body to be completely renewed, WE, OURSELVES, can change so quickly.

Physically, it may not seem as though we change as quickly as I’m making it seem. The thing is, we change so much everyday, though very subtly. Our hair grows half a millimeter per day on average. A petty amount, but still a change. Our faces mature, our skin gets darker, lighter, scattered with freckles from days exposed to the sun. The changes are so microscopic that we aren’t phased by them in the least until we notice that, wow, these jeans have been washed one too many times (maybe I gained some weight), or, rad, my hair is so long that it touches my butt. Maybe that sun has made your face a blister. Maybe holding up a sample of your skin now would be an enormous contrast to your skin a month...

That is when she promptly turned her head towards him and whispered in the quietest of all whispers, “I will despise you forever,” and she is not one to lie about things of this sort. It’s as though she perceives it as a true threat, unfortunately, she is possibly the least intimidating human being in the universe, which, in turn, makes her threats seem as though they are coming from an actual child.

Her eyes could be anger and truth and innocence all at once. That made his slightly crooked smile shine through his slender lips. His grin set off a spark inside the girl that would make it impossible for her to carry out the previously discussed action (like she magically would have been able to live up to that statement).

This was the cycle that preserved their love.

Unfortunately, there was not a one hundred percent success rate.

The final time he smiled, the circuit was not...

I have found myself oddly fascinated with plants. They’re like us, alive and breathing, dying and drinking, soaking up the sun and waiting to die. We’re alike.

If you choose to view it in this manner, there’s only one slight difference; they lack a heart and/or feelings. They have no thoughts, no cares, no problems, nothing. So, what?

At times, I can relate. (and isn’t it for the better?)

Sometimes I feel numb, all over. All these emotions pile on top of each other until I’m completely immersed in alternating sensations, the terrible and the terribly terrific. Chaotic confusion. Out of nowhere, like a meteor hitting the Earth it hits me.

Then, nothing. My mind has been wiped clean. There’s absolutely nothing there. Not a tingly feeling, not a feeling at all. Emotionally paralyzed. Mindlessly emotionless, but I enjoy not feeling. No thoughts. No cares. No problems. Nothing.

Such a...