These Walls

     As we grow up, we begin to build a wall. This wall is our protection, our sanctuary against the elements, our happy place. As each day passes, we face new challenges, discover new fears and secrets, grow stronger and wiser. But we also add another brick to the wall, another layer to this prison. As the years pass and the wall begins to rise, we cut ourselves off from the world. The ties that bind us to each other become thinner, so as to fit in between the cracks of the wall. Where before an expanse of air housed a steel cable that connected us to one another, now there is only a thinning string. Our view of the world vastly changes, as blue skies and rolling green hills are replaced with marks to count the days. Our imaginations get cluttered as we try to count the layers that make up our walls, and we try to remember what lies just beyond it.
     But we have to stop. We have to break down these walls, and step away from the barriers we create ourselves, and discover the world again. We have to stretch and grow, build ourselves instead of the walls. We have to learn how to be human again, how to live and breathe and see without fearing what's in front of us. Because these walls aren't just hiding us; they're stopping us. So stop them, and start new.