I Used to Know this Girl

I used to know this girl. She was brave and strong and never gave up. She would sacrifice everything for the ones she loved. But she was never loved the way she wanted to be. Or needed to be.

But she was brave and strong and never gave up. She used to keep all of her secrets to herself, and kept everyone else's close to her heart. Everyone trusted her but she didn't feel like she could trust anyone. She wore the weight of everyone else's world on her shoulders. And she liked it that way. It was what she'd done all her life and what she was used to. She knew that life... But her world began to change. The weight of all of the other worlds began to crush her. She buckled under the weight until she was on her knees. Then until she was on the ground. And she began to lose her mind.

She came crying to me time and time again and I tried to save her. I kissed the marks on her arms and I held her close. But I couldn't save her. She was losing herself.

I watched her sink deeper, pulled down into the darkness. She reached out for help and for a while it was there, and hands began to lift her out. Lord knows I tried. But there's only but so much one can do for the lost. Before long her help began to fail and her friends had disappeared...the ones whose burdens she had carried for so long were no where to be found. There was only the one left...the one she had given her very heart and soul to... and she could not find him. He was gone. She could not find the string that had once held them together.

I tried reaching out to her one more time, I reached far into the darkness and prayed that I could grab hold of her. But she was already lost. She was lost in some dark in between who she was and who she had been.

I used to know this girl. She was brave and strong and never gave up. But sometimes life is just too much. And now she is a shadow of who she was, longing for the days when she knew herself. I saw her the other day, staring back at me with vacant eyes from the mirror. I wanted to reach out to her...but she was long gone.