Hey you!

   Hey you! I’m here. I’m that person you’ve been talking over. Your voice grows louder as if conversations were a competition for who can speak louder instead of who actually has original ideas to share. Your rudeness drowns out a thought that could save the life of the person who utters it, but instead, I stuff it down. People like me aren’t heard. We’re polite. We don’t interrupt or argue. We discuss and listen.

   Hey you! I’m the person you shaped. You taught me how life was supposed to be. You said I should be a shining example and never settle for someone who was less than God would want from me. I’m now the person you tell to settle. You say “no one’s perfect” while never seeing that perfection was never a requirement. Respect, loyalty, love, and enough moral fiber to avoid the easiest of pitfalls is all I seek, but still, I remain alone. It’s as if the world has gone mad, and in the madness, all I ever hear from the ones who taught me how to live life is to join in on the craziness that poisons our very existence.

   Hey you! I’m the one you sabotaged. You said writing was a dog-eat-dog business, and I learned that lesson from someone who could have been a friend. Your jealousy speaks volumes about a few who make all writers look petty and shallow. Your attempts nearly destroyed something I had loved since I was fourteen. The very act of writing kept a gun away from my head at one point, and you had the nerve to try to take that away from someone who had NOTHING else.

   Hey you! I’m the one who was supposed to be a friend. You called me your best friend for longer than I care to remember, but all it took was one thing you didn’t agree with to shatter everything. Your lack of understanding and nihilistic belief that you had any say in my life was a testament to your lack of ability to truly love anyone who wasn’t you. Still, you taught me. My heart hardened. I didn’t trust anymore. I couldn’t.

   Hey you! You’re the one who said you wanted to be with me. When others thought I was overweight, you were also the one to join in on making fun of me. It didn’t take long for you to teach me that love has conditions. It cares about weight, money, and social standing, or at least the sorry excuse for what we call love does. Your actions left a hole that never truly went away. I’ve had body issues ever since. I’ve been paper thin and overweight, but never have I looked in the mirror and been satisfied. I still hear ghosts telling me I’m inadequate today.

   Hey you! I’m the dreamer you said was fooling himself. “Writing isn’t a career, and there’s nothing worth seeing anywhere besides in this location.” “Science and religion could never walk hand in hand.” “You won’t like that.” “No one does that.” Your closed mind and heart is an example of what a society full of drones carrying cell phones and going to the same location daily have become. We don’t dream, and we don’t really live. Anyone who dares to be different becomes delusional to you. You spew doubt all over a life that should be simple. You sneak into my most private thoughts and whisper to me - destroying everything there could have been for a person who needs anything but the small world you refuse to leave.

   Hey you! I’m still here. I’m still living life in a way that makes me proud and wishing the best on those who work in an industry that needs ALL the help it can get. I have ideas, and I have facts that back them up. I don’t shout like an ignorant buffoon. I listen and respond with educated thoughts and clear eyes. I’m still able to face a mirror even though your insecurity seeped into me so long ago. Can you say the same? As you stare at your children and pray that someone doesn’t treat them the same way and you look at the body that is now yours, do you understand what irony is all about? With your closed walls, are you happy? Do you ever think for yourself and wonder what new experiences could be out there? Are you secretly miserable, or is your head completely hollow?

   Hey you! Do you even care? Are you haunted, too? Do you see the damage you do, or is it all just everyday life for you? Is this your paradise - a world where we reward wrong and persecute those who try to stand above it all? I hope it’s not because it’s my hell. It’s the only one I’ll ever know. I’ll dream in this hell, live life the way I know to be right without hypocritical reasoning, respect those who dare to do the same, and condemn what I know in my heart to be wrong without fear of people lashing out.

   Hey you! I’m done with your world of lies and hypocrites. I’m rising above it all and becoming something better than I used to be.

   Hey you! How does it feel on the ground? From here all of your loud opinions and undeserved self-importance seem pretty small, as they always should have.