Fireworks

Fireworks

Inspired by Katy Perry

I don't really care for fireworks. They scare animals (scared my childhood pet out of our yard and he was hit by a car). They scare veterans, giving them flashbacks and triggering PTSD. But this isn't a rant about fireworks after all.

The song by Katy Perry isn't really about fireworks. It is about the light that shines inside each of us.

We each have at least a spark. If we nurture it, fanning the flame, it can become something as spectacular as silent fireworks. We shine with a light like no other.

How do we do this? By daring to be all we can be. For writers, it is possibly submitting our writing or even just sharing it with someone else. For that wallflower in all of us it is daring to join in. For that student, it is going for those best grades and challenging yourself.
That's really what it all comes down to is challenging yourself. Stepping out of those self-made boundaries and daring to take that leap into the unknown. It doesn't matter if you win or lose. Losing may mean you retreat behind those walls again, but at least you tried. Winning can be a radical change in your life. Either way, you still have that shining moment when you did what you thought you couldn't.

I have found my shine a hundred times in my life. I used to hate myself. Everything about me was wrong. Today I am content with myself, but it took shooting off a bunch of those fireworks. The biggest one was forgetting about what other people may think. That was huge for me. I used to think I was a mind reader and everything they thought about me was bad. Now I shine when I walk in a room because I no longer care. If people don't want to get to know what is underneath my looks than that's on them. They probably need to find their own fireworks.

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