Gemotions

I dragged myself through the day, the weight of the world heavy on my shoulders. I couldn’t even summon the energy to turn on the television. My phone buzzed: a notification. A book announcement. A biography about me. Written by someone I’d never heard of.

The publisher sent me a copy. I read the first sentence, then the second, and then I just kept going. The narrative was expertly crafted, the story told with a smoothness that both enthralled and horrified me. It painted me as someone I didn’t know, someone confident and successful. I felt nothing but a dull ache in the pit of my stomach.

The person in that book wasn’t me. It was a lie. A cruel, beautiful lie. I threw the book across the room, but the words, the image of what I was supposed to be, remained etched in my mind, a constant reminder of all I had failed to become.