The Mask in the Mirror

What do you see when you look at me?

Do you see what I see?

Is there a trick of the light that distorts what you see?

Or does it distort what I see?

Do you see behind the mask I put on

Everyday there is a mask

It morphs and adapts to the environment

Much like I should, but I don’t

I don’t change, but the mask does

Without my knowledge it changes

Perhaps it changes me as well

How would I know?

My mask hides the real me

The hurt, the stress, the fear, the shame

The vulnerability and the disappointment

It hides what I don’t want others to see

What do I look like behind the mask?

Honestly, I don’t even know anymore

At some point the mask and I have become one

I haven’t taken it off in so long…too long

I look in the mirror and I see the mask

The facade I put on to hide myself

The mask protects me

Or does it?

Hiding my true self doesn’t seem to have done me any good

I’ve become so accustomed to hiding my feelings that I don’t even express the positive ones anymore

And why should I hide my feelings, positive or negative

I’ll tell you why

Society has conditioned me to believe that anything less than perfect is shameful

Less than perfect is just that, less than

Not good enough, not fit to be a part of the norm

Society says it’s better to fake perfection than to embrace what is real

We all wear masks

To protect us from the critical gaze of society

Some are more ornate than others

Some slip off from time to time

What would society look like without masks

What if we all took the masks off

If we just let ourselves be

Would we feel freedom or relief

Or would we run into the shadows

It starts with me

If I want to know, I will have to start by removing my own mask

Layer by layer

It will be difficult, it may even be painful

But it must be done if I want to see my true face once again

What will it look like I wonder

Will there be scars I don’t remember

Features I don’t recognise

Beauty that has blossomed

One way to find out

One layer at a time

For however long it takes

And so I begin

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