“The Girl on the Other Side” by Inspired Spaghetti

My trembling eyes struggle to make out the distressed figure staring back at me. I strive to understand why, a mirror, something whose outcome should be so predictable, fails to show me any truth every time I come into its view. My fingertips smear the reflection as I so desperately try to make a connection with the girl on the other side. With once clench of a fist and strong hit forward; she could disappear in seconds. Her existence lost into the small shards of glass stuck between my bleeding fingers, but destroying her would not be a solution to my problems. The girl on the other side would still haunt me in screen doors, car windows, or the shiny part of my dinner spoon, she will find a way to make me remember her pained face.

Yes, we may bare the same forehead scar from falling down the stairs at age two or the long brown hair desperately in need of a trim, but her eyes tell me different. Her eyes speak a truth, about true struggle, one that I thought I hid well from the world. Maybe the absence of truth, the one that angered me so greatly, was there the whole time, but I chose to ignore it. That is the hard thing about a reflection; it is shows us so much about ourselves, and it is scary.

I start to notice all my flaws that make up the reflection; the dark circles under my eyes, my chapped lips, or the scars of my acne, I am very far from perfect. But I also start to notice all the many other things about me; the smile lines from funny jokes, or the highlights of my hair from days in the sun, these things are apart of me too--not perfect but still beautiful. With the thought of this, I start to see a grin appear on the girl in front of me. I start to realize that seeing the beauties in the reflection before me, help ease the pain of all the flaws I perceive to have.

As time passes, I understand why she stands before me; her presence aids me in understanding who I am. I realize my internal struggles make me prone to an overwhelming amount of ignorance, allowing me to doubt my own reflection, but I am inclined to entertain the possibility that the truth I had doubted to exist can be easily found by the flaws I found about the girl on the other side.