be a voice not an echo

everything is so loud and crazy out there.

i keep on getting lost. it's scary out there. it's like a forest where there's no sunlight.

i find myself walking behind everyone else. i find myself following everyone else. i find myself copying everyone else.

i have ideas. but i'm too scared. i'm afraid that people won't like them. i'm afraid of what people will say.

they're buried. deep down. they're forgotten. i push them away. i don't want to see them.

"be like us," they say.

"i want to," i say.

i follow.

i don't let my ideas come out.

i am not a voice.

i am an echo.

i walk among the trees.

they are quiet, silent; they rise up to the skies, but their roots are in the ground, deep down here with me.

and that's where it comes.

"i have an idea."

i push it away. i don't want to see them.

but there's another voice, and it breaks through the subdued silence that i have become. it is my true voice, one that i have pushed away, again and again, with every other idea that was ever hidden with my fear.

it speaks.

it whispers.

it says,

"speak out.

share your ideas.

be your own voice.

don't be an echo."

i am not a voice.

i am an echo.

i'm scared.

i run through the forest. i don't look back. my eyes are blinded. with what?

tears.

i run harder.

the voice is still here. and suddenly, i've stopped. i'm not scared. i'm tired; tired of running away, tired of hiding, tired of burying every hope and dream i ever had deep down inside of myself, never to see the light of day.

and so i stand.

tall.

proud.

smiling.

and suddenly it's all gone. all the fear is washed away. everything about me that whispered "echo" on the night wind has been blown away by itself.

and so i stand.

and i say,

"i am a voice.

i am not an echo."

i went off.

i took a book.

i took a pen.

 i wrote words.

i gave the words.

i made a smile.

+be a voice, not an echo+

take courage, dear heart,

anna

|| i was an echo. but not anymore.