Standing to the side I realize that I am the only one that looks like me. I’m hesitant to speak, for fear that my contrast and everything associated with it would be unpleasantly prominent in the room. Though hesitant, I can’t help but wonder if I am exactly where I am supposed to be. That I was placed here on purpose, with intention, with careful thought of what they would need and what I could bring to the table.

With exact precision in knowing that there was something in them that would heal the source of hesitancy within me, pushing through the barricades and seeing past the barriers life had covered me in. With that wonder, I fight against the grain, the defaults of my mind. Allowing myself to feel warmth in their carefree conversations and invitational banter.

Reprogramming my mind so that I can receive their words without overanalyzing everything. Reconditioning my instincts to neither fight nor flight but to commune, to be in fellowship, to allow them the opportunity to embrace my contrast. To be the light, unhidden from this world, seasoning it with salt.

Could it be, that I was born for such a time as this!