Author’s Note
Inspired by a friend’s thoughts and feelings, and written through my own reflections.
REFLECTIONS
The same face, the same hair, the same eyes… perhaps. But something feels different. Something feels missing.
You ask yourself, What is it?
But you don’t find an answer.
Sometimes, we think we feel lonely because there is no one beside us. No one to lean on, no one to share our thoughts with, no one to tell what is going on inside us. We want someone who will listen to us, understand us, support us, and stay beside us when things get difficult.
And sometimes, we find those people.
We have friends to sit with, people to laugh with, and people who are willing to listen. We get what we once wanted, what we once thought would make us feel less alone.
Yet, somehow, the feeling remains.
We sit among people, smile at their jokes, and participate in conversations, but somewhere inside, we still feel that something is missing.
Why?
We have what we wanted. We have people around us. We are no longer alone in the way we once thought we were.
Then why does that emptiness still follow us?
Perhaps it is because we are looking for something we haven’t realised we lost.
Perhaps we are missing a version of ourselves.
The person we used to be before we started changing ourselves to become what others wanted us to be. The person whose thoughts, interests, and little habits once felt so natural, until we began to question whether they were acceptable to others.
Maybe we abandoned some parts of ourselves along the way.
Not because we wanted to, but because we wanted to be accepted. Because we didn’t want to be rejected. Because sometimes, being ourselves felt like a reason for others to turn away from us.
And so, we changed.
We hid some parts, silenced others, and slowly learned to become the person people wanted to see.
Perhaps we thought we were becoming better. Perhaps we thought this was simply what growing up meant.
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But somewhere along the way, we started feeling like strangers to ourselves.
And now, when we stand in front of the mirror, we wonder what is missing.
Maybe we think we have lost that person.
But what if we haven’t?
What if we are looking at the wrong reflection?
What if those parts of us are still alive somewhere inside, waiting for us to find them again?
What if they have been there all along, waiting for us to stop rejecting them the way others once did?
Perhaps those scattered parts of us are calling out, trying to remind us that they haven’t disappeared.
They are still ours.
The parts we hid because someone didn’t like them. The things we stopped doing because someone made us feel strange for enjoying them. The thoughts we kept to ourselves because we feared being misunderstood.
Perhaps they are still waiting for us to accept them.
We are still here. Why have you left us behind?
And maybe the saddest part is that we spent so long trying not to be rejected by others that we eventually started rejecting ourselves.
But what if we could collect those scattered pieces again?
Not to become exactly who we used to be, because time has changed us, and perhaps we have grown in ways our younger selves never could have imagined.
But to bring back the parts we never needed to abandon.
To accept the things we once loved about ourselves. To allow ourselves to think, feel, and exist without constantly wondering whether every part of us will be accepted by everyone else.
Perhaps we don’t need to return to our old reflections.
Perhaps we need to recognise that they are still a part of us.
And maybe, the next time we stand in front of the mirror, we won’t have to keep asking what is missing.
Maybe we will finally understand that we haven’t lost ourselves completely.
We have simply left some parts behind.
And perhaps it is time to bring them home.
Maybe we are not that alone…..
