Rotary report - Malissa's story

It is a given that with life, every emotion is included. With the good,
comes the bad creating the most extraordinary moments of our existence. At
times melodious, at times unfortunate. It is but an image of life's most
intense fulfillment. It is as though that through sorrow and misery, we are brought
closer to earth. The essence of our lives become more real and truthful. It is
with the absence of troubles that we take leave of our full beings.

We become only half real...
Our movements then are as free as they are insignificant.
What then shall we choose?
To belong to every aspect of being...
Being real, or just half...
Being complete or incomplete...

I met a girl who from the first moment, changed me forever...
Malissa, we grew mutually as people, experiencing most of the ups
and downs and the in-betweens that an exchange student, or anyone for that
matte can.

It seems that because we were so close, I felt what you felt and you
felt what I felt.

we were inseparable, together always...living in the present and
embracing what the depths of the future have to offer.

The time which we spent together slowly slipped away from beneath us
and our ability to control what was destined disappeared...  There was nothing to hold

onto but the uncertain fact as to whether or not one day we will meet again...

Now it feels like what we had with one another was but a ephemeral.

As the weight of the idea of you leaving came crashing down, I tried so
frantically to escape it, failing to realize the small detail that the more
we ignore something, the more victimized we are by it.

I feared the day when i would have to witness you walk out of my
life as it is now, and as I did, the disgusting scent of nostalgia lingered amongst me,
resting on my shoulders making me appear heavier by a obscene amount...it absorbed
itself into my being...like poison it pulsed through my veins.

I was weak with anxiety...with hate
I hated time...it angered me
It took you from me

I was left in a strange state of melancholy, uncontrolled, untamed
even by my hardest attempts...
To me...it was a tragedy, beauty at its best, for only what is
difficult, has value...

It seems that negativity can make a person entire. They crave
to find themselves and the qualities that they never knew they possessed.
A quality such as strength.
It is with the negativity we encounter that we thirst for this
attribute...

It is through our being sad, that we are exposed to the endurance
and capability we contained all along...

You helped me to find myself, to find a strength I never knew I
had, and for this, I THANK YOU...

Don't ever change Malissa...
You are beautiful
Until next time

The Bahamian one
Laura

Malissa and Laura (click to enlarge)