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Michaela Tripp Mar 2013
They told me there is no "I" in team.
I am an athlete.
I am an individual.
I am strong.
I am weak.
I have desires, hopes, and dreams.
I have goals.
I have fears.
As a team my opponent will never see my weaknesses,
Only my strengths, never my fears,
Only my goals as they unfold before them.
I am not afraid that my team will see my fears, my hopes, dreams or desires.
I trust my team to an unlimited level.
I am not afraid that my team will see my faults, because with them I overcome my faults.
With them I am fearless, with them I have hopes and dreams.
With my team I am not weak, I do not have strength of one athlete but many combined, focused, and dangerous to my un-united opponent.
I become my team and my team becomes me.
I do not judge, and I am not judged.
I have a goal, and the team has a goal.
They always told me there is no "I" in team.
They were wrong...
I am the team; I become the team; the team became me.
The team becomes an entity unto itself.
The team is strong, creative, compassionate, caring, authoritative, disciplined.
The team absorbs "I" and then there is an "I" in team.
The "I" becomes part of something much more powerful.
They were right: there is no "I" in team.
But there is a "team" in "me."
Michaela Tripp Mar 2013
Freckles sprinkle the face of an innocent child
Like April rain showers
sprinkle the green grass with yellow flowers.
She walks across the grass with her  little toes
like skipping stones on the summer lake.
To her the world is just as innocent as her freckles
and no one can hurt her.
This little girl is older now and the innocent freckles still remain
but she has come to learn the world is not as innocent as her freckles.
Her world has turned cruel.
She has seen hate, she has seen evil, and she has been hurt.
She sits and she wonders why her world changed
and why the world could not stay as innocent as her freckles.
Because even as she grew older
her freckles stayed just as innocent
and she wonders why her world could not have done the same.
Michaela Tripp Mar 2013
long hair, tanned skin
full lips, perfect eyes
***** like a victoria’s secret model
**** like Kim Kardashian
and no bigger then a size two
this is society’s idea of a perfect woman
and if you do not fit these standards you are considered ugly.
But what exactly is ”ugly”?
Not having designer clothing?
Not having your ***** hanging out of your shirt,
or your **** hanging out of your shorts?
Maybe not being able to see your ribs?
or feel your bones in your thighs?
Having acne?
Not wearing make up?
Having braces, or glasses?
Is that what ugly is?
Or maybe another word for “ugly” is society.
Michaela Tripp Mar 2013
hey loser
where you going fatty
you’re so ugly
you’re gonna die alone
what’s the point of you anyways
you’re so pathetic
you’re such a freak
you’re worthless
stupid
*****
****
annoying
ugly
go **** yourself
sticks and stones may break my bones but words will never hurt me.
somewhere out there someone is afraid to go to school
thinking they can’t face this again
and again.
somewhere out there someone is hiding behind lies                
suffocating in your stereotypes.
somewhere out there someone is starving for perfection
wasted meals, wasted potential, wasting away
and they think “I’m wasted but, am I perfect yet?
somewhere out there someone can be in a room full of people
but, never feel more alone
like they are invisible to the world
sticks and stones
you’re breaking my bones
why won’t you just let me be
who do you think you are
telling me what I should and should not be
how do you think that makes me feel
i feel alone
i feel worthless.
sticks and stones may break your bones but words will never hurt you
but words carry weight 
so much weight
as if an elephant is sitting upon my chest
it’s pulling me down
i am drowning
i am gasping
struggling to breathe
you’re watching me drown
this sea of misery and pain surrounds me
consuming me
i can’t fight it
i just want to wake up from this nightmare
i’m sorry i am not perfect
i’m sorry i wasn’t enough
i’m sorry that those words finally hurt me more than a broken bone ever could.
Michaela Tripp Mar 2013
I thought I would grow up into a world where everything was care-free
I didn’t think it would be hard to be  me
But there is a secret hidden in the most beautiful of pictures
a secret so secret that it's hard to figure
I grew up into a world where I am surrounded by thin
this is the secret that is hidden within
I'm constantly told that I have to be perfect
but is killing my own body really worth it?
The message being sent to women today
it's that you have to look pretty to get your way
When did it become all about looks?
Haven't you ever heard the phrase 'don't judge the cover of books'
The media has tried to give the public a voice
but all it's doing is giving us a choice
These images we're surrounded by, they all look the same
is there anyone out there who is willing to say that in who you are, there is no shame?
Photoshop doesn't make me want to buy what's in your ad
all it really does is make me extremely mad
I'm mad because advertisers lie about what they sell
that shirt won't fit anyone bigger than 2 from what I can tell
Because they had to make that model appear impossibly skinny
in order to show off their bikini
I'd like to see people in ads that represent the real society
people that are of all shapes and sizes that illustrate variety
What really pushes me over the edge
is that I'm told that my curves are what people dread
No one has the right to tell me what my body should be
I shouldn't be ashamed to walk around being me
Instead I walk in public feeling like I've done something wrong
I've been brainwashed to think that because I'm not thin, I'm not strong
But now it's time for me to stand up for those who need to hear this
you control the happiness you feel and you don't want to miss it
There is so much more beauty that one simply can't see
there's a type of beauty that's more than just skin deep
'Beauty' is knowing who you are inside
is worth unleashing and showing off with pride
It's hard to overcome something that has caused so much damage
but believing in your own beauty can release all your baggage
Who wants to see a monotone society?
we need to embrace each other's variety
The more people you get to know
the more shades of beauty will be shown
Then you'll see the secret that isn't so hidden
the secret that your own beauty will never be forbidden
Whether you're thin, round, short, or tall
it doesn't even matter at all
So what if my thighs touch, so what if yours don't?
Let's get real people, the media is a hoax
Because that mold that we are told to fit
I’m sorry, but it simply does not  exist.
Michaela Tripp Mar 2013
Sometimes I can feel you growing,
just to be clear I’m speaking figuratively not literally.
I can see your soft ivory skin, your freckle kissed face, and bright blue eyes
that reflect the sun with whim and adventure,
my beautiful baby girl.
When you join my years from now i’ll build you up like a mountain.
I’m going to make you everything I wasn’t,
confident.
I’m going to teach and achieve, and help bring you up to be you
and you will be the best you can be.
I will teach you to smile at your failures rather than weeping
because failures are what make you human.
You’ll be strong willed with the confidence to let people know bit.
The most important thing I’ll teach you is love.
You’ll grow and grow and grow filling your head and heart with more.
More love for yourself
because you are YOU
and you are beautiful.
More love for people of all sort because we all matter and we all deserve to be loved.
And more love for yourself.
You will probably end up with some of my weaknesses
i’m sorry for that,
yet i’m not sorry enough to really mean it because  weaknesses don’t make you weak,
they make you human.
You, my wonderful daughter will grow into a beautiful woman
in more ways than you can count.
You will be intelligent, not by how much you’ve learned in school
but because you will be filled with kindness, passion, and love
and that is something no one can teach.
Your internal beauty will overflow and seep threw your pours making your external beauty just as beautiful as your internal beauty.
Michaela Tripp Mar 2013
In certain lives, there comes a time where there is nothing left to live for, and all the remains within your dim existence is a shallow pool of wasted hopes and dreams.

Where skies no longer display hues of blue but instead produce red toxic fumes, while you wither away, questioning your own self-worth.

Dying with every breathe you take, crying with every sound you make.

These times may nearly destroy you. They may burn you alive, producing putrid black wounds, ripping away at your flesh and exposing you to the world.

They may leave you stranded alone, ******* the air from your lungs and leaving black holes in your heart. Black holes that render you helpless, as you struggle to save the last bit of sanity you have left to hold onto.

You may be slammed against the ground so hard that every last bone in your body breaks and you are suddenly knocked unconscious, unable to pick yourself off of the blood stained floor where your limp body remains.

Depression; a single word that holds such a strong meaning and has so much authority that it's mere presence is enough to weigh you down.

It's mere existence is so powerful that to be forcibly locked within it's thorny flesh-tearing arms leaves it's victims in such a dis-functional and discouraged state that escaping it's clutches seems nearly impossible.

This monster resides in a place where holding onto one's life is the hardest challenge you could possibly face.

Where no one else can see the darkness or hear the desperate cries for help.

Where no one else is capable of fathoming it's destructive soul-******* power.

Where no one is able to witness the killing of a soul and the slow but gradual declining of the ability to survive.

No one can understand until they have plummeted themselves into this dark abyss that travels down the the core of the Earth and devours you whole, this dark abyss known as depression.

You don't have remind yourself every day that you stand in this place. Because what is it worth simply rolling around in it's molten liquid until it kills you?

For even when there is no visible light at the end of the tunnel, you have to squint your eyes and look harder. Stare and stare until you see that light appear.

Even if it is just a spec of light poking through the darkness. Even if it appears to be thousands of miles away.

For even a spec of light is an opportunity to find your way out, an escape route in a blackened world.

You have to believe that even though your mind says that there is absolutely no hope left, even when life has disowned you, crushed you and has hit you with all it's might, you will make it out of this place.

You have to believe that this is the ultimate test of strength, your story as the lowly under-dog, rising to the top and conquering everything that once stood in your path even when it stood taller than what you thought you could handle.

The under-dog that was mocked and pushed around, that same soul that everyone spit on and deemed as unworthy of even the ground they stood on.

YOUR beautiful soul, that has been ignored, and cast as a shadow in this world. Even when no one was able to see your glory, not even yourself, you have to believe that you are a human-being.

Capable of climbing out of the darkest hole, finding your way out of the longest tunnel, balancing on a tight rope no thicker than a strand of hair.

You have to believe that you are worthy of the life you've been given, you are worthy of that happiness just within your own reach.

— The End —