The Bear In The Woods

Bonjour tout le monde (Hello everyone).

How have you been? 

I'm currently on mid-term break now, hence the reason why I've got time to finish up some of my work and share it with you. 

So here, something I came up with while I was trying to shed some light on a friend who needed a little hope in his life.

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You're a bear. 

Living deep in the woods, a forest. 

There, the trees are thick. Dense. Branches woven so tightly together that even the sunlight can't penetrate it. You find it suffocating, the mildewed smell of moss, the long feathery leaves grazing your shoulders wherever you go. Those leaves, coated with poison, injects negativity into your veins, and plagues your thoughts.

You’re not good enough. Not as tough, not as intelligent, not as good, they’d say. You lost your first love to another bear, strong and capable. You were no match for it. Hence, you're alone this season. In fact, you'd probably be alone forever. The others laugh at you for your failure, your parents see you as nothing but a disappointment. You want to run away. But it’s not like you could walk to the edge of the woods, and dive off a cliff into the ocean to live as a fish.

They'd whisper even further. Your fur is dreary, like a miserable widow on a rainy day; no one would love you, no one would want to be friends with you. They drive you crazy. But you can never leave them. Not the trees, no. They’re a part of the woods, your habitat, your home. They would always be there, twisting and turning under the damp soil, devoid of the sun. Devoid of hope.

You have two options. You could stay put and allow their branches to slither towards your fatigued body, eat you up like a parasite. To completely shroud you, consume you, until there’s not a trace of your existence left.

Or you could go on. Continue walking, even if the trees brush you by your shoulders, whispering and reminding you of your faults, your flaws, even if a branch stands in your way, you put your snout up high. You continue to move forward.

You’re not completely leaving the trees behind, but you're moving past them. Ignore their whispers and head towards the others. The ones who doubted you, who made fun of you, who lost faith in you. You confront yourself.

Negativity would always be in our lives; pain would always be there, poking us, haunting us. You either sit around and wait for it to overtake you, or pull yourself up and get on with your life.

You choose.

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I'm not too sure if this is considered as a short story or a motivational metaphoric analogy, but I think I'm gonna go with "short story". As always, I've posted this on my Wattpad as well. Here's the book cover of the story/analogy: 

Anyway, I've gotta go back to work. Hope you liked this and I'll see you soon.

Chin up and have a great day, human.

- Nukey