Suddenly, you | Completed

Prologue

It's actually quite funny how fast time passes by. When you're a kid, you don't appreciate it. When you're a kid you enjoy your life without a care in the world, thinking you'll be a kid forever and having that feeling that you can't wait 'till you grow up to do so many things that adults don't let you do because you're a child. You don't give much importance to friends when you're a kid either. I mean, of course they're important but you can't realize which ones are for real and which ones aren't. Well, at such innocent ages kids can't have much malice, can they. Kids aren't evil, unless they're from a horror movie, which is not the point here.

The problem's when we hit teenage years. When we hit teenage years and we're, little by little, discovering the truth about the world that we live in, we also discover the truth about the ones surrounding us. Not everything that shines is gold. We finally say goodbye to "being a kid", you're a grown up now -to you- and you're the most important thing in the world. Everything revolves around you. Everything's so dramatic. Shit happens.

For example, you're mixed up with kids form other schools who you don't know, and so you have to put into practice your social skills. In my case, my non-existent social skills. But let's not talk about me just yet. Another fabulous example is what happens when you're best friends from elementary school distance themselves, as new groups of friends are made. And you come face-to-face with one of the biggest high school problems: fitting in.

How many times have you felt that you didn't belong? How many times has your so called best friend ditched you or just oh-so-casually forgotten about you? How many times have you felt like you didn't matter.

That need, the need of knowing that you have a strong group of friends you can rely on, of knowing that you fit in in a group and that you know your place, you know where you stand and what's your role and what is expected from you, and what you expect; that is what hunts us all during our long four years of that little simple of hell called high school.

Okay, not all of us. Some people -lucky people, let me tell you- know all of this. They're happy with where they stand, with who they are, they have friends. Having friends is the most important "weapon" to survive high school. What happens to the loner, that one boy or girl who's always alone, wandering the hallways, eating alone in an isolated corner? Who cares about him or her? Has anyone ever thought that just maybe a couple of months ago they were happy and had a pretty good life and when they started high school they lost their friends, because they prefered someone else?

Some people say that there's no worse thing than third wheeling with your two best friends. Feeling like they're better off without you. Like you bother. Maybe that's why they decided to ignore you and treat you like your friendship, that was so important to you, never happened. Like you haven't been present in the most relevant events of their lives, like you don't know their parents, their siblings, like you haven't stayed at their houses a thousand times, like you haven't gone on vacation with them, like you haven't laughed and been happy together over a million times.

And that's just plain sad.

And it's even sadder, when thanks to those who you thought were your friends, who you thought weren't laughing at your face and eve humiliating you just to be "cool" in front of everyon else, you've wasted your teenage years, the ones that are supposed to be your best.

And when you start college and meet new people, and see that everything starts to finally fit in and you're doing what you love and maybe everything's going to be okay and you can see yourself happy; that's when you look back and realize that you've wasted the best years of your life with people who are not worth it. And you want to take it all back. You've spent those years being socially awkward, not being happy with your body and the way you look, being ashamed of yourself, insecure, not confident at all because you envy what others have that you don't; and not experiencing what others have, like your first kiss, your first crush, your first boyfriend, going party for the first time, trying alcohol for the first time, cool clothes, staying up late, being angry, yelling at your parents for no reason, being rebellious, just living life.

Time flies, and it's not just an expression. It's reality.

But also, looking back and considering all the things that you haven't done, you realize that maybe, if you hadn't gone through all of that, you wouldn't be who you are today, you wouldn't be where you are.

So just maybe you should thank those people for opening your eyes and making you see what you had right in front of you all this time.

You.

You were in front of yourself all this time and you didn't notice. You're the one who can do whatever you want. You can be someone today, and someone else tomorrow. You don't have to stay in the same place with the same people all your life. You can move, you can change, you can be fatter, you can be skinnier. You can have purple hair or brown hair. You can like football or reading. No one can judge you. High school has taught you that you are who you are no matter what, and you have to accept yourself. And you have to know how to appreciate those who did stick to you. Those who have seen you at your worst (phisically, mentally, whatever) and are still there. Thos are the ones who deserve to be called friends.

And you have to forget about everything else. All the name-calling, the laughing at you, the mocking, the moping around, the laziness, the staying in bed all day, the crying non-stop sitting in your bathroom because you don't want your mom to see you and worry about you, the pitying yourself, it has to stop. JUST STOP.

Forget about it all and be thankful for what you have right in front of you.

Your true friends. Your family. And yourself.

Because every person has a beautiful world inside to be discovered. Every single person is beautiful in their own way. Maybe it's not your way, or you don't like it, but you have to respect it, just like the others and yourself have to respect you.

Be proud of who you are, believe in yourself and don't ever apologise for being different.

That being said (it was necessary, I assure you), let's get this started.