By Ashley Larson, TIWP Student

These walls know me better than my family. Inside, these walls hold our secrets, our past lives, our differences and similarities. Inside, these walls hold our screams, tears, radiating smiles and our world. Inside, these walls hold our true beings, our fantasies, our realities. Inside, these walls hold everything we’ve ever known.

Walls of being.

These walls are all different colors, six chairs in one corner and two in the other. A desk,
tables, mirrors, posters, paintings. Chalked walls, blue walls, pink walls, white walls, happy walls, sad walls, tear filled walls, loved walls, screaming walls, wailing walls, helpless and helpful walls. Walls that saved us, helped us, made us live. Walls that communicated with us more than the average human does and walls that made us communicate and, in turn, save ourselves.

Walls of reality.

The next person to rent these walls won’t know what these walls know. In an earthquake
it would be the only building to survive, holding strong because of our secrets instead of
crumbling due to our failures. Life seemed to revolve around this space and—although it doesn’t seem poetic to let it go—I know I’m lucky to have a space between these walls I can call home.

Walls of safety.

What lies between these walls inside the hollow spaces that are filled with unexplained explanations are stories of abuse, emotional turmoil, suicide notes, failed experiments, break ups, and thunderstorms. But it never rained on my parade. These walls are filled with a laughter that is louder than humankind, with happiness, courage, confidence, women, life, and eternal gratefulness.

Walls of confidentiality.

These walls welcomed me with open arms and I could never possibly look at that
building the same way. It knows more than anyone could ever know and it has held some of the greatest minds ever known. A successful entrepreneur, a kindhearted realist, a witty intuitor, and a passionate rocker. These walls have brought me and many women a family, a shelter, a place to be happy when life doesn’t give us reasons otherwise. This space has provided us with algorithms to solve this game of life and tools to be the women we want to be. This space has given us collective realism—and that’s a gift so many human beings don’t ever understand, nor do they know it exists.

Walls of eternity.

These walls know me better than my family. And any other wall will never be as eternal as the many we have inside this space. Point 37, -122 is a point on the map marked by intuition, but maps will never be able to display all of the intuition shining brightly from our little space on the corner behind the movie theater—with intuitive girls and a purpose.

No one can take those walls away from us.