Looking back now, it all seems so silly.
I stare at the mirror, trying to find a trace of that young, sweet and innocent boy that I used to call "me" not so long ago.
Surprisingly, what stared back was this weird... man? Am I allowed to call myself a man, now?
"What were you so afraid of?", I asked the reflection, and the only reply I got was the sound of my own voice bouncing on the glass.
Was the real world so bad after all? Was all the fear and the dread justified?
Why did you spend so much time trying to hide from something that would find you no matter what?
I cracked a smile, but for some reason, the mirror didn't seem to smile back at me.
So, is this the real world, then?
Somehow, it's not nearly as scary as I thought it was gonna be.
My eyes wandered off for a minute or two, trying to look back on all the ways my life has changed in the last few months, and when they finally made their way back into the mirror, they saw the scared little boy that I was trying to find a little while ago.
"Cheer up, kiddo, here's a spoiler for you: somehow you manage not to fuck things up too bad, and life won't be half bad", I said to that frail memory.
This time, the mirror smiled back before I could even smile in the first place.
The smile lingered on while I said goodbye to the "me" from a past that's so close, and yet feels so very far.
That smile has been following me around for a couple of weeks now, and to be perfectly honest, it's a smile that I don't ever want to go away.
Yup, I guess life ain't so bad after all.
