Freeing My Frozen Self

Even the darkest parts of life hold rays of light however small.

My experience being bullied in college was the beginning of one the biggest low points in my life.

But when I finally did emerge from the dungeon a new dawn awaited.

Rereading my writing from the time, it was clear I was going through something.

It was as if the heat of high expectations I had from others, myself, and life in general gradually cooled.

Replaced by bone-numbing cold in the icy snowy mountain dungeon.

Even in my frozen emotional state I felt the monumental shift of seasons. I could sense my exit from that unnatural world was near.

It would be A necessary and natural change that would facilitate new growth in the future.

My exit from the dungeon

On walls mirror with the thickest ice I glimpsed my reflection.

It stared back. Blue on the outside and inside. It began to show me the way out.

I hurried my stumbling pace fatigue pressing me with every heavy step. I secretly hoped someone would come to walk with me.

But no one came. Only the sound of my own ragged breathing accompanied by my crunching sliding footsteps could be heard.

I wanted to quit.

Then I saw the light of the exit.

Small at first then bursting into my squinting eyes. I could see the world again.

I felt the thaw coming, the tension filled frozen fear melting away. It was a rebirth. A feeling old and new.

I realized how high I had climbed.

As if I had slipped the surly bonds of earth and soared far above my humble beginnings.

The old cathedral of my youth, baking in the sunny center.

My hometown, cloaked in obscuring fog the protective bog surrounding it.

All were visible from here.

I had come so far. Yet had so far to go.