I had a bad breakup in my early twenties, the kind that makes you reconsider everything. Shortly afterwards, I went on a trip with my family to the Great Lakes. Lake Superior is wildly beautiful in ways that words cannot capture. That trip turned into a spiritual quest for me. There, at the water’s edge, I remember deciding that I should start being myself, instead of who I thought I should be.

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Deep, endless water

Dark, angry; a grave of many men.

Waves splash, choppy white-caps crest

Are swallowed, softly crash against the shores.

It is cold. The beach stretches out for miles

Rocks, pebbles, stones. No sand.

Not here, in the north.

Summer doesn’t seem to penetrate.

Sun shines, not a cloud in the sky

But the breeze is chill and frosty.

A wide open sea

Mysterious as it is beautiful.

Compelling, my heart cries to sail off into its waters

Until I reach a brand new world.

I feel free.

I am shedding all the shackles I had

And drowning in the possibility

Of a rebirth after such an agonizing death of my heart.

Reborn on this lakeshore.

Secluded. Wild. Free.