Its so heavy.  Painful. A burden. It will beat you to the ground and kick you while you’re there. Its unfair and mean and bleak and full of anger. Its full of missteps and mistakes. Rife with insincerity and injustice. You will cry. You will bleed. You will mourn. It all ends in nothingness. Life is a thresher of pitch black. But in that pitch blackness even the smallest and dimmest light shines bright. And that’s a choice you make. To turn your light on. To keep it on. But it won’t be possible to shine all the time. On bad days, on the really dark days you’ll want to dim your light. Dim it so faintly it can barely be seen- but even on your worst day, your light has the capability to change another’s life. You may never know it. But something you said, something you did, just smiling at someone else- it could change their life. So shine. Be you. Be bright. Be a god damn technicolor rainbow slicing through the bleakness that can be this existence. And when, inevitably, someone comes along that seeks to shut out your light- retreat. Regroup. Heal. Learn. Grow. And become stronger than ever- shining so stunningly brilliant that people won’t be able to look directly at you. Shine on and show others the unfathomable power you hold by being truly yourself. Uniquely you. Because no one else on earth can be that. Be you. And shine.