Last night
Shopping mall
I’m walking past a storefront
And suddenly I stop
A woman is looking at me
Tired
With dull eyes
Bag is heavy, shoulder slanted

I look at her and think:
Who is that?
And then I realize - it’s me..)
Me, who forgot the last time I laughed until it hurt..
Me, who measures success by the number of tasks completed..

"Hey" I say to the reflection
"What do you want?" it replies
"Where’s that girl with the braids?"
The one who wanted to save the world and believed in magic?
The reflection stayed silent
I tucked a strand of hair back
Went into a store
Bought the most expensive ice cream
Pistachio
Sat on a bench
Eating and crying
Not because I'm sad
But because I finally saw myself
The real one
Broken, but alive
And this is probably the most important article I’ve ever written

The end...
Or the beginning?