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A Checklist For My Younger Self

Writing by Emily Bach // Photograph by Marat Safin

Writing by Emily Bach // Photograph by Marat Safin

  1. Innocence is spoken of to be an entity of entirety. while fire burns completely or not at all, there’s no denying third degrees burn leave fewer scars than ones ranking in first. paint lines of dissent in flesh, a protest personal as it should remain.
  2. bare forests are no more empty than lush ones, their vibrancy sunken into deep soils but core untouched. colors that are not surface-visible are not indicators of death but rather ones of complex living. investigate emptiness further than depths; the blind spots of the human eye are often the ones with the greatest topiary.
  3. audiences are not needed for validation. your voice is a catalyst for thoughts but is not its purpose. do not discredit the hues of your lips as they speak to voids.
  4. wrinkled hands conceal lines of history present in each one of us but concentrated in lines abstracted. books will never contain the passions of these hands touched by many but felt by few. allow yourself to be one of the few.
  5. misshaped t-shirts and wrinkled jeans are floored collages of your being. though they coat the grounds of what is considered your own, their art fills a space uninhabited. learn to find delicacy in mess as you will find it in yourself.
  6. there’s an old saying that goes, “a flower does not think of competing with the flower next to it, it just blooms.” though indulging in utopias such as these may seem hopeful, allow yourself a sense of truth. even flowers compete for sunlight, for nutrients, for pollination, but in doing so their colors remain constant in intention but brighter in intensity. grow with this in mind.

Emily Bach

Emily Bach is a young writer with a passion for creating. In her free time, she enjoys exploring
Washington, DC, the city she loves and lives in. Through her work, she hopes to change the
way young women are represented in the art and creative media community. Follow her on
Instagram at @emilyjbach to read poems from her latest series, Vulnerability.

Marat Safin

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