"Harsh Reality" by Jerico D

     During the second semester of freshman year, I sat next to this girl in my English class. At first glance, she didn’t particularly stand out. She always seemed like she was in her own world. One day, a project was assigned to the class and I ended up asking her for help. She kindly lent her aid and we conversed frequently ever since. As days pass by, our conversations grew longer. Slowly, her features began to stand out in my eyes. Her brown hair shimmered like stars in the night sky. Her smile gave me butterflies in my stomach. A smile which cast away the miseries that surrounded me. That radiant smile, which shone brightest whenever I had a bad day. I had never experienced these kind of feelings before. Feelings which stemmed from daily conversations as opposed to ones that stem from objectification. Afterwards, confessions occurred and our feelings were reciprocal. However, reality wasn’t so kind to these two naive teenagers. I was under the pretense that feelings were more than enough to overcome the obstacles that reality places in your way but that was nothing but naivety. I was overwhelmed by the reality regarding relationships. I could do nothing but stand in awe of our foolish fairy tale aspirations. Fairy tales provide nothing but false happiness. Sooner or later, reality itself will drag you back from your fantasies. I learned a grave lesson that will forever be etched into this naive mindset. Relationships require much more than just feelings. Factors like effort, communication, and perseverance prove vital to successful relationships. However, knowing is only half the battle. Simply knowing what needs to be done won’t suffice against this harsh reality we are presented with. Possessing the courage to apply that knowledge will definitely aid you in overcoming the obstacles ahead of you. Courage combined with knowledge grants you the ability to overcome your failures. Even to this day, I am still devoid of this courage I speak about. Sooner or later, regrets will come one after another. There will definitely be instances where we regret the choices we made but there is nothing we can do about it. Reality forces us to pick up after ourselves. All that’s left for us to do is move forward and learn from those failures. Dwelling too much in the past can prove fatal to our own conscience however, visiting the roots of our own failures isn’t such a bad experience once in a while. If we learn to conquer our mistakes, the ability to surpass this harsh reality will inevitably present itself. Nevertheless, that radiant smile still lingers deep within the farthest depths of my mind. Not a day passes by without me reminiscing about that smile which brings forth mixed feelings. Our past can be utilized as a source of either strength or sorrow however, the deciding factor will always be yourself.