I was focused before - obsessed, really - with the appearance of perfection. But what did that ever bring me but pain? Pain and not seeing people for who they really are. If I ever get out of here, I'll look at people differently. I'll look for their true selves beneath the mask of their bodies. I'll look at soul.

Cheryl Rainfield

Categorized in : People Self Pain

Other times, I look at my scars and see something else: a girl who was trying to cope with something horrible that she should never have had to live through at all. My scars show pain and suffering, but they also show my will to survive. They're part of my history that'll always be there.

Cheryl Rainfield

self-harm pain girl

In Maybe I Will, Laurie Gray writes about important topics that teens need to talk about, including sexual assault, friendship, and alcoholism or self-destructive behaviors that result from trauma. Maybe I Will may help some teens know they're not alone.

Cheryl Rainfield

important self writing

The lack of human voices really gets to me. I never realized that we need to talk with other people just to know that we exist. That we matter. Loneliness is a howling, empty cavern inside of me that just keeps growing.

Cheryl Rainfield

voice loneliness people

And I'm still alive. That's what I have to focus on. Because I want to live. Even now I can't let myself give up. And that's something I didn't know about myself before - that I have such dogged determination and strength. That I can be completely focused on a goal and work long past what I thought my endurance was, when I have to.

Cheryl Rainfield

giving-up determination past

My scars show pain and suffering, but they also show my will to survive. They're part of my history that'll always be there.

Cheryl Rainfield

self-harm will-to-survive pain

I think you've got to get out whatever's hurting you through your art, so it doesn't twist you up inside.

Cheryl Rainfield

hurt art thinking

You can see when someone's been hurt the way I was. It's obvious. Something changes in their eyes; pain becomes their center, even when they try to hide it.

Cheryl Rainfield

pain eye hurt

I know you're upset, I know you're scared, but don't walk away. by Cheryl Rainfield

I know you're upset, I know you're scared, but don't walk away.

Cheryl Rainfield

upset scared inspiration

If I don’t do what feels right to me, what I need and want to do,... by Cheryl Rainfield

If I don’t do what feels right to me, what I need and want to do, then am I really living?

Cheryl Rainfield

really-living want needs

I hate my body Hate what it remembers. Hate what it let him do. by Cheryl Rainfield

I hate my body Hate what it remembers. Hate what it let him do.

Cheryl Rainfield

hate body remember