You look at me and you see what? A strong, confident woman with a lion heart waiting to be tamed? A beautiful stranger with such unique features that she’ll appear in your deepest dreams for years to come? A person with an intense, intimate backstory just waiting to share it with you?

I know the reality though, don’t think me insane. I know that you’ll walk past me and look at me for a brief second, but then your life will continue and my face will never cross your mind again. You won’t wonder if I’m a morning person or a night person, you won’t care if I prefer tea or coffee, the thought of my hopes and dreams won’t cross your mind.

But I am a night person. The brisk, night air that swoops in as I crack open the window puts a smile on my face. The look of a dying star makes me feel so inferior, in a comforting way. The thought of everybody in my town being asleep while I can roam the streets excites me.

I prefer coffee. The bitterness as it slides down my throat, with a slight shudder of sweetness from the teaspoon of sugar I add. The way my eyes slowly open more and more as I drink it, and the way it makes me feel refreshed but in a groggy sort of way. How it burns my tongue a little on the first sip which jolts me into consciousness.

My hopes and dreams could snake across the earth and back again if I unfolded them. I wish deeply to travel across Asia and witness the culture. I want more than anything to be a mother but just one child because I still want some freedom. My mind constantly wanders to the thought of having a career in healthcare, to put something good into the world.

But it doesn’t matter, not to you or to anybody else. So why should it matter to me? But then again why shouldn’t it matter to me?

I refuse to live in a world dictated by the rules and regulations of the violent minded people, who seem to be in charge of what matters.

My main dream is to do something to stand out, not in the way that I’ll be taught about in history books, but in the way that I’ll die knowing that at least one person was proud of what I did. Me.