Accepting because I am one of them…

I am running, running without even looking back. Running as if someone were chasing me, running as if my fingertips could graze the edge of freedom, running as if pain could never catch up to me, running for a flicker of hope, for the fire of determination. Running as the trees I leave behind fade into shadows, my world growing lonelier—yet I do not falter. Running as distant faces blur into nothingness, their outlines dissolving with each step—yet I do not stop. Running because I am fleeing the inferno of sameness, running because I am chasing the illusion of paradise, running because with every step, I become someone new.

I am crying, crying for the ground beneath my feet as I run. Crying for the fragments of myself lost in passing images, crying for the memories that once held happiness, now fading into the void. Crying for a world where I grow more meaningless with every step. Crying for the trees I left behind, their roots thirsty for the care I never gave. Crying for the words I spoke, now trembling under the weight of doubt. Crying for the books I read but never truly understood. But most of all, crying for the pages I abandoned in pursuit of something greater. Crying because I know that some things will never change.

I am thirsty, thirsty until my whole body trembles with the ache of longing. Thirsty because I could not defy the choices made beyond my will, thirsty because I stood unmoved before the vastness of oceans. Thirsty because I could never quench the dryness that once consumed my mind. Thirsty because though I would have set worlds ablaze for a single drop, I refused the water offered to me. Thirsty because I was once among them, running because I was once been among them, crying because I was once been among them. Accepting because I am one of them…