Year 2021+ Essays

Daydreams in a World of Black and White

        [1] Vibrant splashes of colors blur together. They drip down the sides of my vision, seemingly never touching the beginnings of the melancholy earth. Why is this happening? Flashes of a world that only I can see, only I can hear, only I can taste and touch. Am I going crazy? Why must everyone around me insist everything I do has never happened?
        [2] It started when I was just a kid. Shapes and bright colors filled my sight, never leaving me until interrupted by the monotone voices of my peers. So dull, lifeless almost. Of course, as a young child, I paid no mind to their strange behavior and attitudes. I strode forward positively, letting the painted walkway in my vision lead the way I strode forth. I didn't need to know why I was different.
        [3] It wasn't until I was in middle school that I began to think about the reality in which I lived. Questions began to blossom in my head. What made me have this extraordinarily vibrant ability, unlike anyone else who surrounded me? I tried to find the answers to my questions in books, novels, almost anything. Unfortunately, I found myself having the literature I read also fill my everyday life. Why does this happen to me?
        [4] When I entered college, I reminded myself to act as if I could see nothing at all. Not a glimmer of color or a sparkle of something that was almost imaginative. It all worked well, until I met someone. This particular someone talked a lot. But not about normal college things, no. They talked about a world almost completely different than my own or even my peers. Why does this happen to them too?
        [5] A few more years passed by and the light colors that surrounded me, slowly but surely, were being drowned out by the realities and struggles of life. That is, until one day. I was walking along the darkened streets, dragging my feet as I made my way to my lonesome job, only stopping momentarily as a splotch of some sort of bright liquid fell in front of me. I stared at it for just a second before looking to see where exactly it came from. Walking towards a narrow alleyway, more and more drops of liquid and color started to fill my vision like sun filled raindrops in the night sky. I hurriedly turned away, tightly shutting my eyes as I sprinted through the small alleyway. Why am I running from something I tell myself isn't real?
        [6] Once I finally opened my eyes, I found myself in a large quartyard, filled with things I had never seen before in my life. Strangers sat on the ground, on benches, everywhere. Drawing. Their creations filled my eyes, spiraling towards the sky as if beckoning anyone and everyone to come to and join them. Unlike the world on the other side of the alleyway, there was absolutely no sign of any dull or bland colors. Now I realize what I started seeing when I was only a child. I saw the dreams and imagination of those surrounding me, including myself. Only, everyone in this safe haven actually believed and tried to make those dreams a reality. Dreams that don't just happen when you sleep. Daydreams.

[2022-Language and Composition]