I feel alone,
and you don't even notice.
I smile all the time,
but there is sadness in my mind.

IT TOOK ME SIXTEEN YEARS TO REALIZE THAT I DON'T NEED A BOY TO MAKE ME HAPPY FOR SO LONG I WAS CONVINCED THAT A PERFECT SOMEONE WOULD COME ALONG AND TELL ME I WAS STILL BEAUTIFUL DESPITE THE SCARS ON MY WRISTS BUT I NEVER TOOK THE TIME TO SEE THAT THE ONLY PERSON WHO NEEDS TO REMIND ME THAT IS ME I AM SO SICK OF BROKEN PROMISES FROM PRETTY BOYS WITH BLUE EYES AND BURNING LIPS THAT ARE ONLY EVER GOOD FOR KISSING SOME OTHER GIRL'S HIPS AND I'M TIRED OF CRYING BECAUSE MY BODY ISN'T GOOD ENOUGH FOR THEM I'M SO ******* SICK OF HATING THE PERSON I SEE IN THE MIRROR TODAY IS THE DAY I LOVE MYSELF FLAWS AND ALL TODAY IS THE DAY I SAY ******* TO ANYONE WHO HAS EVER MADE ME FEEL LESS THAN ENOUGH BECAUSE I DON'T NEED A BOY WHEN I ALREADY HAVE MYSELF

Be a person with courage
Have the strength to carry on
Broaden your horizons
Take on new challenges
Continue to feed your mind
Learning is a lifelong experience
Without knowledge
You will be dealing with a hinderance

Friends, I find, are like oceans.
In that their influences come
and go
with the tides
when fate,
or the moon,
Pulls them to other places.

A friend, I find, is like an ocean
because he or she affects me in waves,
which come
and go
and come
to change the person I am
one grain of sand at a time.

And when the last wave has come
and gone,
an event which may never happen,
or may occur tomorrow,
the artifacts they leave behind -
the lost kites,
the clouded glass,
and - most of all - the shells
decorate my life
and make it worth traversing.

And - most of all - the shells
herald forever their influence.
Echoes of their voices
everlasting in my mind.