Look At Me

"Look at me."

Do you know how often I've said that in my head?

"Look at me."

Just tell me what you see. I don't want you to lie. They lie to me enough.

"Look at me."

They told me I wasn't good enough. They told me I had to work to become someone. They told me the top of the ladder is still years away.

"Look at me."

A higher education was what they told me it would take to make it anywhere. They warned me of a miserable life with a low income if I got low grades. Either you do well or you fail in life, that's what they told me.

"Look at me."

I believed them. They scared me. They cornered me and threatened me with horrible outcomes. It was either-or. That was all there was to it.

"Look at me."

I worked. I struggled. I cried. The ladder kept getting taller. They kept telling me to pick up the pace. Make it happen. Do something right.

"Look at me."

But stop. What do you see in me? Am I really nothing? Who cares if I am nothing? I am nothing. I am nothing. I am nothing.

"Look at me."

The world sees me as nothing if I do not complete four years of college. They see me as a failure, as someone who didn't comply, as someone who didn't make it.

"Look at me."

I'm still something. It doesn't matter what the world thinks of me. I am someone.

Look at me.

Here I am.