Blue

Blue is my favorite color. Not just because it’s everyone else’s favorite color or because it’s an easy answer. I love the color blue because it is the color of the ocean in the morning. As the horizon fades from black to orange to the robin’s egg of daylight, the vast blues of the water, from the periwinkle-blue of the tide all the way to the blue-black of the deep, become vivid, striking, and overwhelming. I love the color blue because it is the color of the sky on a sunny day. When I walk outside in the afternoon, I look out at the expanse of the sky and see blue as far as I can imagine. It enhances every other color, from the white of the clouds to the green of the grass. But I also love the color blue because of the days the skies are not sunny. When it’s raining outside or it’s raining in my head, the color blue lets me know I’m not alone. There are the days when I cannot convince myself to get out of bed despite all my responsibilities. There are days when I tell my boss I can’t come in to work because I’m feeling a little under the weather, when in reality, I cannot bear to tell her I’m trapped in my own head. On the days when I am sucked under the current, I feel blue. But saying I’m “blue” makes me think of every shade of the color, light or dark, and I love them all equally. I love the color blue because it has taught me to love myself in every shade. There are days when I am midnight blue, and there are days when I am royal blue, and there are days when I am baby blue. But without each of those shades of blue, there would not be a full spectrum of colors, or of me. I love the color blue because I am blue. In every shade.