8. A Closet of Masks (Creative Writing Portfolio)

The following piece I entered into the 2014 Reflections contest at my High School, and took first. Enjoy!

A Closet of Masks

 

With every individual comes a closet.

But not just any closet one might find in a bedroom or a hall.

It is an empty closet, when we are first born.

And as we grow, day by day, it begins to fill.

The people we come across have one thing in common.

They come with expectations.

To fulfill the expectations of those we meet, we create an individual mask for each and every one.

And slowly, our empty closet grows to be a closet of masks.

 

I wake up in the morning, and the first thing I do is make a decision:

What mask will I wear today?

Will it be the one my mother wants to see?

The emerald green with success stamped across its face?

Or will it be the one my friends want to see?

The vibrant, colorful one in pinks and purples that just scream happiness?

A mask for my grandmother, a beautiful lady, who only wants her granddaughter to shine in life.

So I put on the mask that I know will make her proud.

An elegant mask made of black silk, trimmed in silver, and edged with diamonds that do just that, shine.

 

My closet of masks.

Masks made to appeal to everyone around me, but me.

But that’s okay, because society never taught me a lesson of how to love myself before I give others a chance to love what they think is me.

My eyes, hidden behind the black, empty shadows of despair.

 

 

You wake up in the morning, and the first thing you do is make a decision:

What mask will you wear today?

Is it green like the paper you want your bank account to overflow with?

Or is it blue like the sky that belongs to a world with opportunities?

 

We all put on these masks that we have made for everyone to see.

The masks that were meant to please everyone but the mannequins that model them to society.

A closet full of greens, pinks, oranges, and blues.

Masks that glisten, and masks that blend.

So many colors, yet, for some reason they mask your true ones.

True colors masked by more and more colors.

 

We crave the freedom, the power of being who we truly are.

We pray to God to give us that escape from the shadows of the barriers we put on each morning.

We pray some more.

And then we go to sleep.

 

We wake up in the morning, and go to our closets of masks.

The doors open.

You freeze, I start to shake, and the world begins to end.

Only to begin again.

The masks are gone, the closet empty.

One less decision to make.

A world of masks, a society of expectations, a place of hidden identities no longer existing.

A new world is born.

An old society dies.

A better place.

One without a closet full of masks.