Never question someone's beliefs

Everything that matters will change you. Everything that has any importance will change you. It will make you grow, understand, learn, and realize. It will expand your world a bit, take the focus off of something else, and you'll be a bit different than you were before it happened.

People are so afraid of change and feelings that they avoid the things that matter most: The eyes of a stranger on the street, if someone smiles when they see you or just says hello, days of struggle, nights of natural ecstasy, and brief spontaneous moments of happiness. Buy a coffee from the bum on the street and talk about what it means to exist and love, what you read, and how you choose to remember it. These things change you. These things are what matter to me, not how much money you make from your 8 to 15 job, selling NFTs, or what expensive clothes you can afford.

My goal every day is to change. My goal every night is to be able to explain a new feeling. You are not destined to write the same poem two days in a row, right?

Lately, I've been spending all my time explaining myself to everyone around me. I have spent nights trying to explain my way of thinking and my choice to wander and explore. I have spent hours under the moon, defending my passion for photography and expressing feelings. I have spent hours trying to convince myself that I'm doing the right thing, that I'm living the life I want to live. Weeks, trying to convince people that there have to be those who will connect with my art and photography, and that I'm worth a try.

Lately, I have spent all my time defending myself, explaining, and convincing myself about who I am and what I do, and I'm sick of it.

I'm not a strong person by nature. I'm not someone born to be a star, to stand on their own no matter what, to be strong and confident. No, I'm the girl who turned red while speaking in front of my class at school and then ran away embarrassed and crying. I'm the girl who never dared to trust and have friends because I was too insecure about everything there is to be insecure about. I'm the girl who stayed in my room all day when I was too embarrassed to show up.

But when it comes to photography, it was different. Suddenly, I lost all my insecurities, all my doubts, and I finally felt alive. Photography remains the one thing I never doubt. It's the only place I feel safe and confident, and nothing can take that away from me. It gives me purpose. It gives me heart. It makes me breathe and gives me something to believe in.

And please promise me this: that you will never waste your precious time defending your beliefs. Your own personal belief is something that no one can take away from you unless you allow it. Never question someone else's beliefs, and never doubt your own. Your belief is yours and yours alone, and the day you lose it, you will lose yourself.

I'm done explaining myself. I'll no longer spend my time defending my photography. You can break my body and every one of my bones, but you can never take my belief away from me.

(And then I run away embarrassed and crying because of this post.)

I tend to hide when I write these kinds of things.