By: Katherine K. 7C CW

I am but a small fragment of an enormous world, a shard of glass broken apart from the rest. I am not transparent glass, for I cannot look into a mirror and see myself as anything but a stranger. There is no tool that allows one to look into the core of their selves. I’ve always thought that I have known myself, but when I recently looked into a mirror I realized that what I was seeing was just a vessel; a vessel for something unseen and unknown, elusive and maybe even colorful: my true self. And that is what got me thinking, “can I ever truly wrap my mind around who I am?” It might not be easy to describe oneself, but someday I will be able to know and describe myself like I am describing a friend.

I hope, as I often do, that one day I will become familiar with my true self. I will be able to look into a cracked mirror and realize that I am just as broken as the glass. I am not fragile, no. But people, in their own way, are all broken. There is no way to fix them, for people are much more complex than simple machinery. There are no wires or structures in people that always have a fix. We all have what are called flaws. Some of them are buried deep underground, and others that you wear on your sleeve. But through the crack in the mirror, I will also be able to see the goodness in me, the part that shimmers and beams, like a group of fireflies, through the dark. So in the end, I do not count my flaws. I count what matters, for there are things more important than trying to fix what cannot truly be comprehended in the first place.

What some might call naivety, I think is a strong case of hope. I believe I possess such a thing, although it is usually only seen in fairytales and fables. Hope can shine through the very windows of our soul. Sometimes, I can look at something and feel like my day is brighter, because some things are like mirrors of light, so bright they can cast out all the darkness you can ever felt. I wonder if I am optimistic enough to be like that for others. Most of the times, when I am in a bad situation, I can always find a way to turn on the light. That’s one of the qualities I am sure I would not trade for the world.

Sometimes, I can get lost, but the best kind of lost there is. Lost in a garden of words, each flower placed so perfectly, bringing out the beauty of everything near it. I can walk for hours, listening to every single sound, even the tiny sound of grass being split up when my foot touches the ground. I can look at the beautiful sky that is always a perfect shade of violet, right before the sky is going pitch black. Despite that, I find myself seeing perfectly, though some parts of the garden have little light than others. And even when I am somewhere else, like at school, I find myself remembering what it was like, longingly trying to grasp the intangible presence of a great book. It sparks my creativity, and new ideas flood over my mind like a tide. It makes determination shoot through me like a flaming arrow, on fire with fresh resolution, because, one day in the distant future, I want to help others know what it feels like to be given the warm, sensational feeling that you get when you are reading a good book.

Can there ever be a time when, finally, you can look at yourself as if you were looking at a best friend? I believe there is. The picture you see in the mirror will develop over time. It will start out as a blank canvas. It will grow in detail, though ever so slowly. The picture will not look like much at first. But only at the end, when you have become the best person you can be, will it be clear to you what it shows. You may not realize it, but you are the artist behind the picture. It is up to you to decide the type of person you will be; and it is up to you to make it the prettiest picture it can be. That is why you should not be who other people want you to be, or you will be a stranger to yourself all your life. Be the best person you can be, for trying to be the person you are not will never achieve anything.