i learned that there is a world outside of me

that the pain of others matters not because of how i feel it or don’t

but because of how it hurts them

it took me almost 21 years to realize this

i stand ashamed, humbled, stupified

there are wounds bigger than my petty splinters and scratches

huge, gaping holes where life has been ripped out

i know i can’t fill them, but now, strangely, that’s okay

i’m not going to worry about why’s or if’s because they don’t matter

He must increase, and i must decrease

it was a strange way to learn a lesson, but sometimes wisdom comes from the unexpected