Stars we steal from the night sky

shine brighter reflected in your eyes.

In that moment I know;

never let you go.

And that is,

my dear,

love.

I

Don’t walk alone,

It’s not safe.

Protect yourself, you are their target; you will be their victim.

II

Don’t wear that dress,

It shows too much skin.

Cover yourself, you must be appropriate; you don’t want to send the wrong message.

III

Don’t drink that,

It could be drugged.

Defend yourself, you can never be sure; you are such easy prey.

IV

But fuck that,

I’m done living in terror.

If this is life now, we’ve screwed up severely: When are we going to learn to trust again?

First, I will make a slight adjustment to the prompt. These are the thing(s) I want to say:

In my seventeen years of life, I have experienced more than most will experience in a lifetime, and I wish to share five simple things that make me a happier and better person than I perhaps would be without them.

1. Perspective is key.

The more I dwell on something without giving it contextual perspective to the world around me, the deeper and darker I fall. You can choose to live whatever life you want to live, but it is perspective and knowledge of where you stand in comparison to others that can shift you entire viewpoint and change you into the person even you didn't know you were meant to be.

2. Seek help from those you trust.

I'll just outright say it: I'm stubborn as hell. I thought I could handle things on my own, but that was just downright wrong. It was only when I began to turn to my loved ones that I began to feel a little bit of that weight lifted off of my shoulders. Let others help you with your baggage, you don't need to carry it all by yourself.

3. Go outside.

Doesn't matter what you're doing or where you are, but go outside right now. Whether it's freezing and snow is falling, or it's deathly hot and you'll be drenched in sweat within seconds; bundle up (or strip down) and head outside. Now just sit, and look at the sky. This is an amazing world we live in. Look all around you; wherever you are, there is beauty. Notice it, and even better than that, look for it.

4. For the love of God, never stop reading or writing.

This is something I've been having to remind myself of lately, and now I'm reminding you. The more we read, the better we write, and the better we write, the more we want to read. You learn something from every piece of literature that you read; every article, every poem, every short story, every novel. Never stop reading. Seek more knowledge, more understanding, more of everything in this world that is lovely. Words are our safe haven: live them, breath them, and most of all, never let them go.

5. You choose your family.

Surround youself with people that love you and that you love as well. You choose who you want in your life. Let the people who are a part of your family believe in you even when you don't believe in yourself. Blood doesn't determine anything; your family are the people that you trust the most and that you want to be a part of your life. My family is a rag-tag compilation of different characters that each have their own quirks and flaws, but they are the people in my life that I love more than anything and they fill me with happiness and joy. Find those people in your own life, and make them your family.