Yesterday, I refused to pay the price for something I had not bargained for.
It was a deal I had not seen myself getting into and, with so many people around me jumping to it, I had not quite realised that it could be something I didn't want.
But the price tag was a bit too heavy. I was being told - by countless silent whispers in my head - that I would have to give up bits - large bits - of myself. In return, I would be handed a much coveted possession - success.
I looked around me and saw remnants of people I once knew, their shadows reminders of their past selves. They are successful. They look back at their shadows and hear the songs they once sang, lines they once wrote, smiles they once had. Now they have success. They paid up.
I am not the only one though, holding out. There is a small tribe of us. Some are sure, some not so, some paid up and left their shadows behind with us. The rest, the ones that are sure, like keeping our shadows with us, within us.
I shall keep mine. Will you?