Golden
In this photograph, there sits a smiling man with a think goatee, smiling at his picture-crazy wife.The red of his cheeks and the honesty of his eyes remind me of who he once was, before the solemnity took over his entire demeanor.
His elbows rest on his knees, as he looks lovingly at his energetic young daughter, and he smiles with the quintessential joy of being a new father.
She laughs as if he was the funniest dad in the world, and the joy is reflected in his eyes.
She clings to him like she might someday lose him.
I wonder if she knew.
Twelve years later the golden band on his fourth finger disappears, and her whole world is suddenly divided in two, without an inkling of warning to cushion her fall.
If only she could fix it.
Her dog whines for comfort as her best friends fall apart, and she feels it in every corner of her body.
She feels like she is becoming an ounce more invisible every day, as everyone focuses on their own problems, disregarding hers as “teenage drama,” worthy of the garbage can.
But one day, she realizes she doesn’t have to let other people define her, and decides to stand tall, and proud; she knows who she is.
Her family is torn apart, but that won’t prevent her from becoming the person she always wanted to be.
Maybe she’s quiet, but she has the determination and strength of a golden lion, and she knew, solidly, that no one could take that away from her.
She watches her observers tilt their heads as if they feel the sympathy they feign, and thinks quietly to herself:
I don’t need this.
I am content; I am golden.
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