Once upon a time there was a person.
No, two people. This story is about both of us.
Well yes, but our stories begin differently.
Alright. Tell them yours first.
Once upon a time, there was a person.
This person wasn’t much.
Just a speck.
Only a small few saw the person as someone significant and beautiful.
Every time someone acknowledged the person, they would have to leave.
The person knew that no one listened, but kept speaking with its loud voice anyways.
The person became accustomed to being alone.
It didn’t bother the person at all.
One day, the head of the house got rid of all of the person’s belongings.
The person didn’t mind.
Material things didn’t interest the person.
Making the head of the house proud was all the person cared about.
So the person changed its appearance to make the head happy.
The person came to love running and lost a lot of weight.
A new wardrobe and a slimmer look changed everything.
Almost everything.
The person still had its loud voice.
But oddly enough, the person began to be recognized by more people.
They began to see the person as one of them.
They wanted to listen to the person.
So much talking.
To be heard frightened the person.
It was all so new to the person.
The person discovered things about people and felt emotions that it hadn’t ever experienced.
It was all that the person had ever wanted.
To be recognized.
But the person didn’t know who to trust.
“Why couldn’t they see me before?” the person would wonder.
“I am still the same person that I used to be when I was nothing more than a speck.”
Once upon a time, there was a person.
This person wasn’t very beautiful on the inside or the outside.
Deep down, this person longed for acceptance.
It wanted to feel happy like all of the other people.
But this person couldn’t fit in with them.
So every time this person became close to someone else, this person would hurt them.
It made the person not feel so small inside.
It didn’t realize that having a loud voice and sharp words wasn’t the same thing as strength or confidence.
This person hurt someone else so bad, that they walked away and the person hardly spoke to them again.
As this person grew up, it learned to bury itself in books to escape the world.
This person would get lost in its own dreams and would wonder why no one seemed to care.
Whenever the person would come back to reality, it would look around and see what it had missed.
So it stopped reading.
But the person realized that while it had been lost in the world of fantasy, it had changed.
The person was different, not the world.
It thought differently than the other people.
The person no longer felt weak and had learned that hurting others would never bring happiness.
But the person was still different, and it still wanted to be like other people.
So the person pretended to be someone else.
This person didn’t realize that a loud voice putting on a show wasn’t a substitute for strength or confidence
But then you met me.
And you met me.
You taught me how to trust people.
You taught me how to be kind.
I made a promise.
I made a promise too.

A promise to listen to all of the “specks” and show the world the beautiful ones.

A promise to atone for my sins by helping those who want to shine.

Because we see ourselves in every lost person who longs to be loved.