Before I leave home every day, I make sure to put a mask on. The mask of happiness, excitement, and love. Behind that mask though, there's none of the above. Mom told me that worrying made me an old soul and to leave it in God's hands, but this "god" is someone that I don't know. As hard as she tries to make me visit the church and believe in "god's" worth, I still feel the feeling that church is just a masquerade and everyone lives under the cover of god too afraid to show their actual face. People fear ridicule and embarrassment, don't we all? But at some point, we must build up that internal strength to take that mask off, because even though I have nearly lost faith in all, I still have faith in myself to take that mask off. My father's been gone for 5 years and I barely get a call but you would've never known this if I didn't take my mask off. I have a real knack for storytelling and I really love to draw but you wouldn't know this if I didn't take my mask off. With this mask on, the world see's a teenage basketball player with an infinite layer of smiles, but what they don't see is a boy that's been scarred as a child and for a while I actually believed that this mask was my actual face and to smile and laugh was my way of fitting in place. I then realized that this world isn't a puzzle at all, just space for innovators willing to take their mask off.