One.

One word. One stupid fucking word. One magical word. One tormenting word.
One word to stop your world as it rotates, to pause your clock as it ticks, to hold your breath as you exhale.

Tonight, the one word for me was: talentless. One single word with so much bitter poison attached to it that inside I fell the instant its sour sting pierced me. Talentless. The lack of a marked innate ability; example: the lack of an ability for artistic accomplishment. I never believed this word applied to myself, until tonight.

Tonight, I sit here at my computer, typing away my feelings, and thinking... I suck. I suck at writing, I suck at singing, dancing, drawing, feeling, thinking, breathing. I have become that petty preteen girl who feels the need to slit her wrists while she cries to an unrequited lover that the world isn't fair.

But I can't let anybody do this to me. I can't let someone take away my power. I refuse to believe that I am talentless. I have come too far. I have to tell that preteen girl that she's awesome now, that she's smarter and stronger. That nobody can tell her who she is. That she's going to make it because she has the drive. Because she has the heart when others shy away from their true feelings. Because she's not afraid, not anymore.

One word. One word can make you think, can make you smile, can make you die. There are hundreds of possible reactions to one word. Though you can't choose what is said to you, you can choose the effect it will have on you.