text: (WP) The Phoenix On her good days, she is like sunshine, all glowing warmth and life. She is love and safety and kindness, though she is broken on the inside. On her bad days, she is like a storm, capricious, furious, swept away by the powerful tide of her emotions. She is darkness and destruction and rage, hating herself because the world tried to put her into a box she couldn’t fit inside. She is slowly learning that the word different is not synonymous with wrong. But she tries her hardest every day, because she just doesn’t know how to give up. Some days she lives out of nothing but distilled spite. And though poisonous thoughts grow within her mind and soul, she is doing her best to weed them out. The world feels hopeless for her, but she knows that’s just her broken heart and mind lying to her, trying to fool her. So many people tried to bring her down, tear her apart, obliterate her, but she is still here, despite it all. Her heart has not hardened; instead it has grown into a garden of words, wishes and dreams. Every day she puts a pen to paper, conjuring magic out of the written word. She creates new worlds out of thin air, crafts stories that mirror the light and darkness that fights daily within her soul. With her words, she opens doors to new lands where anything is possible. Even though she comes from darkness, she is formed of thin e light. It is difficult to love herself, all those broken bits and shadows and regrets, born from a desperate need to feel whole and loved. She longs for peace, though her heart and soul have always been restless. Freedom is what she craves most, the ability to do as she pleases. But her roots, her found family, keep her grounded, even while her mind longs for escape. Sometimes the memories are so painful that she feels like she is drowning within them, a raging sea of mistakes, anger, and regret. But there is joy, too, found in small places: in rain, in a well-told story, in time spent with loved ones, in seeing others succeed and be happy. She knows that her life will be better, but she must make it that way. She is a phoenix, rising from the ashes of her past and looking toward the bright, open future that tomorrow holds for her. She has been so lost her whole life, but now she knows her purpose. She is not meant to save others, but herself, and she wishes that she realized that sooner. Even if she saves no one but herself, that is still a victory, however small. She will spread her wings and fly far away from the place that made her, and become someone worth knowing. She is sunlight, but she is also shadows, a potent mix of passion and determination. Her darkness and light are constantly at war with each other, but she wouldn’t change it for anything. She is powerful and deeply loved, despite and because of her flaws.