Here I am, world. Tear me down, please. It's what you're good at, you beat me up and throw me down just so that I have to fight my way to my feet again. Every time I think you'll leave me alone you knock me down again. I feel like I am constantly needing to prove to you who I am and that I can accomplish my goals and dreams.

I've tried to show you my world. I've tried to prove to you I am good enough. I've joined all the clubs, done the community service, taken the hard classes, gone the extra mile for a stranger, and lost the extra pounds. Yet I still fell short of pleasing you, it's never enough, you let my grades and weight define me, you take every accomplishment I've had and give me two failures, you let me believe I am not enough. Now you win, I'll stay in the ground where you left me.

In a world where I am told who I should be everywhere I go, how can I be anything other than what you tell me to be? I've tried to overcome the failures you've let define me, but it's an endless battle, and I'm tired of fighting to lose. I've lost hours of sleep and all self-esteem I've ever had. You kicked me down and dragged me through the dirt, and so I quit standing up. I stayed there in the dirt.

I will stay in the dirt, plant my seed, and wait for the rain. I will plant my seed and let my roots flourish in the mess you left me in and grow my stem tall. I will grow my stem far above the mess you left me in, but I will keep my roots buried deep to remind me that I've already been down, and I've already overcome the battles you've drug me through. I've turned the mess of failures, self-consciousness and self-doubt into the soil that I draw my strength from now, I played your game and turned what you made me think were my weaknesses into strength.

I'm not done growing yet, my roots are planted, but my stem is still growing. One day I will bloom into a flower, just wait, you'll see.