By Kea Yoshinaka, TIWP Student

To see things as they are
is to see the bags under your eyes,
to see the shaking hands of your friends,
to see the tears of the girl in the corner
that you preferred to imagine as a peaceful recipient of life’s many gifts.

To know things as they are
is to feel the Earth’s dying,
to feel the mutual sadness in the room,
to know that it often gets worse before it gets better,
to know that this is finite, and limited. 

To accept things as they are
is to recognize your parents aging,
to acknowledge the curtains closing on your childhood,
to accept that you have hurt, and been hurt,
to be okay with these things
which would be easier to ignore.

These fundamental truths
are often the hardest to accept
and so we float on the surface
for fear of what would happen
if we let ourselves swim.

We miss the depth of life when we’re too scared to let ourselves sink.