It had been six months but the cloud remained floating over my head like an exposed birthmark. Those memories; the bad ones—they just seemed to linger.

“I heard she—“. You silenced the voices, you sealed their words and you prayed they’d never be spoken again.

“No way, she wouldn’t—“. You listened quietly but you didn’t hear. The memories were all that you saw. Those memories; the bad ones—they just seem to linger.

It’s been one year—and those memories have made me a different person. No more voices to seal except one.

“There looking at you, they’re remembering—.” You try to silence this voice, but realize it’s your own.

“You need to hide from them, they haven’t forgotten the memories”. You listen to yourself, but you can’t find it in your heart to not hear. The memories always seem to linger. You’re not technology; you can’t delete or remove. So what do you do? I asked myself, just like if we were technology, “did you try turning it off and on again?” There’s no reset button and you can’t change those memories but those very same memories; the bad ones—they can change you.

So pick yourself up, dust yourself off, there’s no fall that could break you. Look at the date, smile at the time and live; for now, you’ll make a new kind of memory to linger; a good one. It’s been one year, and those memories have made me the much more confident, happy, and caring person that I am today. No more voices of my own, or of others because yes, it’s true that those memories; the bad ones, they seem to linger and they’re hard to forget. But those very same memories are easier to forgive. Replace those memories for something worth lingering and you'll find that the same cloud cloud, the exposed birthmark you just couldn’t seem to disguise, will cease to hover. You’re a star; you’ve come a long way. Turn that birthmark into a beauty spot, and smile—there’s no fall that could ever break you.