I feel like I’m in a tunnel. It’s really dark and the walls are made of stone. I can see a brilliantly shining light in the distance, the kind of perky sunshine that exudes happiness. Except, the tunnel doesn’t end where the light begins. It keeps going on and joining with other tunnels, ones that aren’t so dark as my own. The light gives me hope. I run towards it, but it’s still so far away. I run as fast as I can, but I eventually slow down. Sometimes, I stop walking all together, because I become so tired and discouraged

It is then that nightmares begin to afflict me. I keep imagining that everyone else has someone that they can walk down the tunnel with, someone that can count on to run with them. But, I am so alone. There is no one to walk down my tunnel with me. I call out, and my voice echoes and bounces off the wall.

All the way at the end of the tunnel, I see someone inside of the light. There’s a girl with scarred knees. She looks exactly like me, but completely different at the same time. It’s like she’s a completely altered person. I am extremely familiar with her by now, and every time that I see her, she makes me run faster. I run and I run with all of my might toward her, but every time, I seem to trip. I trip and by the time I can pick myself back up, I’m crying and broken, and I can’t see her anymore. Sometimes, when I begin to see her again, she looks nothing like me. I’m broken and lonely and torn at the edges, and she’s beautiful. She’s not lonely at all.

She gives me the hope I need to keeping running, though. The hope that girls with scarred knees can still find the light.