It’s my last shift here. I’m reflecting on what brought me to leaving this place a second time. It was me, not them. My soul cries out to go north, and I’m obliged to listen to it.

I see myself surrounded by green mountains and covered by canopies of trees, away from the hold of society.

It’s not that I don’t want to be around people, I love people. It’s society I don’t like. Forever making us feel inadequate and not enough, society creates an atmosphere of stress and negativity. No one seems to be doing enough.

This isn’t an illness within people, it’s an illness within our culture. As a witness to the confines of how we “should” be living I find myself better off dead.

Most look at me in curiosity, intrigued by someone who couldn’t care less what others think in pursuit of their own truth. I wish more people saw the world the way I do.

My entire being cries out to break free from the box people constantly try to put me in. I’d sooner light the box on fire with myself still inside.

Those who I leave behind only know a version of me that no longer exists. I’ve done the work, I am who I’m meant to be, and still growing.

Adios, to my old self, to those who knew me, and those who think I’ll ever return.