i was born in a lifetime where i was nothing distinctive. i have realized that i will live and die as something ordinary, unlike the way i was raised to be.
i was raised to be someone opalescent and shining, a clear rim light that separated me. and when i saw cracks through the trees, i ran. lunged forward into the cold air. nobody here knows my name. i will not be given the attention here, nobody cares that i have been raised as someone fixated on, focused on. corrected until i am nothing but perfect.
I lost my academic power when I was precisely seven years old.
all because I messed up a word in Arabic. i still remember. it was the Urdu translation of the word "zarf". it was "post, envelope" and I wrote "back", i don't remember anymore. i don't want to.
it cost me a whole point. I went from 100% to 99%. 1st place to 2nd.
i got first place again in 6th grade but until then I went through so much that I didn't care anymore. i didn't want to shine. didn't want distinction.
but it was already engraved into me and I couldn't shake it off.
today, in the world of art, where everything is subjective, i keep comparing myself.