The Omnipresence of Misery | Teen Ink

The Omnipresence of Misery

December 23, 2021
By IrtiqaA BRONZE, Lahore, Other
IrtiqaA BRONZE, Lahore, Other
1 article 0 photos 0 comments

Favorite Quote:
Will you remember that I existed, and that I stood next to you here like this?”
― Haruki Murakami, Norwegian Wood


First come the emotions. Then comes the drowning. But it is not the emotions you are
drowning in; it is yourself. It is you that becomes a mighty, high tidal wave that reaches a
crescendo when you are too weak to fight for yourself against your own being. Emotions can
overwhelm you, but you are the monster in the deepest, darkest depths that wraps itself
around you and pulls you under. You are the reason for your defeat. You are your own killer.
People will tell you murder is killing a living, breathing human being – depriving them of a
life people don’t really know they would have thrown away in the first place. But what
nobody tells you is that a murderer's first victim is always themselves. Nobody tells you that
a lot of us are murderers – we just haven’t made it past our first kill because we haven’t
figured out how to hide the remains and pretend everything is alright. We don’t know how to
wash away the blood on our hands, how to stop it from showing to the right or wrong person.
How to stop it from spreading.
That’s the hardest part; stopping the spread. Making what’s left of yourself invulnerable,
immortal, emotionless. Stopping yourself from calling out for help. “Help me! I’ve killed
myself and I can’t hide it!” “Help me! I’ve lost myself!” “Help me! I can’t stop!”
“Help me! I’m just like you!”
But if we are running away from ourselves, why do we run towards people who are like
ourselves?


The author's comments:

This piece is written to reflect on how emotions are both the beginning and the end of a person, and for the latter, the real pity is that the only person you can blame for your fall from grace is yourself. Emotions are a conundrum — we control them through our actions and yet they are competely and utterly out of our hands. This piece seeks to mirror the feeling of being overwhelmmed by emotions and misery and being unable to overcome them because they are you and you are them — one does not exist without the other, even while both are trying to tamp each other down.


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