The Weight Of The World Is Too Heavy To Carry On Your Shoulders Alone

Invisible band aids cover her body, crisscrossing and overlapping in a desperate attempt to disguise the scars beneath. The imprints of countless fingers remain ingrained onto her skin, spelling out a million repetitions of the words “I’m sorry”.

Meaningless and overused apologies are woven through the essence of her existence, with the frayed edges of hope and happiness raggedly sewn back together by her tears.

Her lips are covered in the ink of so many murmured promises and wishes, placed there from a hundred people who kissed her and fell out of her life as quickly as the sun does each night.

She looks into the mirror and sees nothing but the remnants of a once beautiful person.

The parts of her she so willingly gave away are long gone, thrown carelessly into the gutters in cities miles away.
She measures her self-worth by the number of whispered admissions of adoration and loyalty. Her happiness is calculated by how people tell her she should view herself. Her heart is a desolate landscape, with footprints stamped so harshly into the sand that she will never forget their fleeting pass through her life.

Her loved ones beg her to keep her heart and mind to herself until she knows that it will be safe, but she doesn’t believe she has the strength to withhold it from those who ask. Greedy hands outstretched for her innocent fragility, but she views them as nothing more than sad souls that she can–who she must save from themselves.

The world is a terribly beautiful place, full of terribly beautiful and beautifully terrible people, and she will learn, one day, that the only one of them she will ever be able to fully save is herself.

She will learn, one day, that she is in control of the hands that mentally and physically leave bruises on her.

She will learn, one day, that the one person that will always be with her is herself, and she will learn, one day, that that person deserves to be treated with the same love and care as she gives to everyone else.

The world is heavy, and is not meant for one set of shoulders. Lives are far too weighty and complex to rest in one pair of hands. We have far too few breaths available to be taken for them to be wasted on helping those who don’t want to be helped.