Don’t be fooled by me. Don’t be fooled by the face I wear. I wear a thousand masks that I’m afraid to take off - and none of them are me!

I give the impression that I’m secure: that all is sunny and unruffled within, as well as without; that confidence is my name and coolness my game; that the water is calm and I need no one. But don’t believe me... please!

My surface may seem smooth, but my surface is a mask. Beneath dwells the real me in confusion, in fear, in aloneness. But, I hide this. I panic at the thought of my weakness and frantically create a mask to hide behind, to shield me from the glance that knows.

Yet, such a glance is precisely my salvation - I know it. If it is followed by acceptance and by love. It is the only thing that will assure me of what I cannot assure myself, that I am worth something.

‘But I do not tell you this. I don’t dare. I'm afraid to. So, I play my game, my desperate game, with a facade of assurance without, and a trembling child within. So begins the parade of masks. And my. * life becomes a front.

I idly chatter to you...surface and top-of-the-head talk, saying nothing of what is crying within me. Please listen carefully and try to hear what I am NOT saying - what I would like to be able to say -- what for survival I need to say - but what I cannot say.

I dislike hiding...honestly! I’d really like to be genuine and spontaneous, and ME — but you've got to help me. You’ve got to hold out your hand, even when that is the last thing I seem to want.

Each time you are kind, and gentle, and encouraging...each time you try to understand me because you care, my heart grows wings - very small wings, very feeble wings, but wings. With your sensitivity and sympathy, and your power of understanding, you can breathe life into me. I want you to know that.

You can help me to be the creator of the person that is me, if you choose to. You can break down the wall and release me from behind my mask...my shadow world of panic and uncertainty...from my lonely self. Don’t pass me by.

I may fight against the very help I need. But try to beat down those walls with gentle hands of love and sympathy...firm but gentle hands...for a child is sensitive.

Believe in yourself
To the depth of your being.
Nourish the talents
Your spirit is freeing

Know in your heart
When the going gets slow
That your faith in yourself
Will continue to grow

Don’t forfeit ambition
When others may doubt
It's your life to live -
you must live it throughout.

Learn from your errors -
Don’t dwell in the past
Never withdraw
From a world that is vast

Believe in yourself,
Find the best that is you
Let your spirit prevail.
Steer a course that is true.

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