It's eeringly easy to become other people 

At the snap of your fingers, you could change

Snap!

Just like that!

Before you even realise it, you're no longer you

You struggle with an identity 

You're drawn into the shadows, grasping for something, anything

Scrambling for bits and pieces of meaning 

Of purpose

You become lost and stuck in the dark for an awful long time

A time long enough to grow a seedling into a tree

But even that tree has blossomed, wilted and died before you realize the reason for your endless chase of shadows

A new seedling has begun to take the place of the old one before you realize you're struggling because you're no longer you

Before you realize you have slowly slipped into the life of a stranger 

You did so subconsciously

You didn't realize when it was happening

It happened too easily

Slowly, but fast

Fast but slow

So you didn't notice you were now planting on foreign land

It seemed right

It seemed seamless

It seemed like the most destined thing ever

Like it was meant to be

So you didn't know it was the path of the shadows 

The path that would leave your fingers raw, bare and bloodied from digging the earth 

Desperate to find a meaning 

An exit

When your senses become aware that you have become trapped in an identity that is not your own

That the reason for your endless groveling is your identity swap

You start to wonder how it happened

You don’t know that while you spent time with other people 

Absorbing every word that emanated from their mouths

Inhaling their very essence

Hanging on to every mannerism they displayed

Your blood rushing as your interest grew, lighting up your eyes whenever you were with them

Your heart warming and your fingers tingling

The rest of your body joining the bandwagon

While all this was in the mix, you lost yourself 

You forgot who you were, your essence, your roots, what you stood for

All of that got thrown into the wind

Your sense of self, forgottten

And that was when, pardon my French, it all went to shit

Your purpose, however, becomes something else

Something new

To find yourself again

No, not the one you were before you slipped into a foreign essence 

The one you were before you crossed paths with these other people

The version of you when you were alone

Your soul and thoughts bare, loud, and echoing in your ears.

The version of you that didn't feed off another soul

That didn't believe someone else was better 

That didn't place other people on a pedestal

That believed your way was supreme

That was comfortable in their own identity 

That was content in their essence

And when the new seedling becomes a tree

You're more than ready to preserve it 

To keep it flourishing 

And to keep basking in your own authentic and original self.