You we're blossoming into something I was scared of, and you were on the road to being something so special. You we're finding your way through puberty, discovering what it meant to be you, the things that made you unique and wonderful. . . and I stifled that. Fear stifled that. The underlying paranoia of being different or not fitting in, mixed with pressure from every angle, caused you to take a back burner- and then I was slowly created.

I realise this took time, and I stewed for a while, festering in the back of the picture where you didn't see me, but i was there. All of those thoughts you had, the second guesses and the self-doubt: that was me. I would poke my head up when you thought twice about what you put on, or the thought that someone would perceive you negatively. I would show my fangs when you worried about what people thought of you, and I filled you with my venom; it coursed through your veins when those negative thoughts reared.

I took my hands and wrapped them around your neck, suffocating the life out of what was to be a bright young future. . . And for that, I apologize. Fear created me; fear molded me into the cynic I am, and caused you to stagnate. What I did to you was unforgivable. I robbed you of your life- But even worse than that, I stole your possibility. I took a bright, beautiful, confident young soul and formed the sheep from a once majestic lion. It's not fair, and it was wrong of me to do that; it was wrong of me to let society make me think I had to do that.

You were greatness! You were a teacher, a doctor, a lawyer. You were an astronaut or an ambassador. You were the mind behind medical breakthroughs or a beautiful new invention. You were the next President of the United States.

They are who I destroyed. I killed them. I killed your potential, and that, my friend, is the worst form of murder there is.

I took from you before you had anything to give, and I halted all of your gifts in their tracks. I am sorry.

I am sorry I decided to let people mold me, instead of molding myself. I am sorry you suffered because of that. I am sorry that you fell from a steep cliff that was intended to become a mountain; that you had to fall in the first place. I was weak in myself, but strengthened by the fear that had hold of me, and I am sorry that I took the reins from you.

I tried to balance the two of us- to give us equal space, but I soon learned that it was either one of us, or neither. And fear, well, as we know, fear always seems to win over the weak.

I remember you well, I fondly remember who you were. I find myself living to be the individual you were, every day. I strive to find you again. I know you're there, somewhere in the back of the room- maybe even huddled in a corner somewhere taking a nap. But I will find you- and when I do, I will wake you up, and we will find our way together; we'll wake each other up and bring out only the good we know the other to have.

I want you to live again. Be bright, be beautiful and be that amazing Lion that I was created from.