Glow stick

Humorously, one of my close friends calls himself a glow stick because when he wakes up in the morning, he must crack every single bone in his body, or so it seems. Though it was a simple joke, I took it as something deeper.

He calls himself that because he cracks his bones, not because he suddenly glows in the morning, in fact, I'm certain it's the opposite.

But here's the cool thing about glow sticks:

In order to glow, they must be cracked, they must be broken.

How poetically beautiful! Couldn't this be said of us, as human beings?

In order to become what we know we can be, in order to shine our brightest, in order to stay positive, you must know your capacity, and in most cases, that means feel broken. No matter how you define your brokenness, it is there you, within yourself, find the strength it takes to come to healing. And it is after the healing process where you begin to, well, glow. You fail, you break, and you learn, right?

If you've been alive for long at all, you probably have felt broken, and thus most likely can find identity in these words.

It is so important to know your worth, and it is even more important to treat yourself according to your knowledge of your worth.

You are a beautiful creation, made in beauty and strength, and nothing and no one can take that value away.

"Even when we are in our rawest and most fragile of forms, especially then, we are still deserving of being handled with care."

Jessica Katoff

Therefore, I encourage you, if you're feeling broken or fragile, once you heal, let it glow within you to the point where it glows outward.

Because we're all glow sticks, shining only after we're broken.