You Are Worth It by Valerie Parente
If you want to live life to the fullest
then you have to be completely honest.
Be with yourself and learn to own it
because you’re enough and once you know this.
You’ll see beauty in every moment
and if someone else manages to notice
well then that’s just a bonus.
– Valerie Parente (5-26-2020)
For Once by Valerie Parente
For once
I just want to be somebody’s emotional outlet without being taken for granted.
I just want to be able to eat again without wanting to vomit.
I just want to be able to listen music again without thinking of the time I spent.
I just want to be able to be my true self without feeling completely broken.
I just want to know that I did the right thing by saying what needed to be said.
I just want to be out of this pain but I have no idea what comes next
because I don’t know what to do without my very best friend.
– Valerie Parente (5-24-2020)
Black Hole: A State of Mind by Valerie Parente
This meltdown is not circumstantial
this meltdown is a state of mind
and I believe this one was looming for months now
when everyday life got flipped upside down
and I didn’t have a chance to grieve the everyday life we had to collectively leave.
I’ve been trying to cope by distracting myself with the people who matter most
which is ten times harder when you have to distance yourself to maintain physical health
and I think after two months one little straw broke the camel’s back and I only knew how to overreact.
The circumstances never changed but a heavy darkness infected my mental state.
It doesn’t make sense for me to be as upset as I am about my personal circumstance
because it’s really not the end of the world
but this state of mind made it feel like I was going to die if I didn’t testify
and this heavy mass of pressure in my soul was simply waiting to cave in
like a black hole.
This state of mind will pass with time
but I’m so scared while I try to make it there
because every second in this black hole
feels like an eternity I can’t control
and I just want things to go back to normal.
– Valerie Parente (5-23-2020)
No Appetite by Valerie Parente
Having an appetite is a luxury.
When you don’t have an appetite life is hell
because you have to eat
because you feel your body getting weak
you have to put fuel inside
but the pure disgust makes every morsel feel like torture
and to go through day after day just trying to figure out how much you can intake
when just the thought of food makes you want to purge
is truly a kind of hell that nobody deserves.
– Valerie Parente (5-22-2020)
terrified. by Valerie Parente
The most terrifying thing I ever did
was confront my true feelings
because it was either waste my life or admit
any of the joy I had hidden
and as much as I wish this could result in happiness
it’s no longer my decision
because I let go my control of any consequence
by taking that leap and hoping not one but two people could be honest
and I never would have made such a dangerous bet
for anyone who didn’t have my highest respect.
– Valerie Parente (5-22-2020)
Untouched by Valerie Parente
My 25 and a half years of suffering doesn’t come from not feeling good enough.
This is a constant issue of feeling like I am good enough
but like God keeps setting me up
for a million and one lessons
about how there’s absolutely no one
who could ever give a fuck
about the body I managed to save
when I tried to die young.
And you can go ahead and say I’m insane for being so broken up
but maybe you’d understand my kind of hell if you spent 25 and a half years untouched
while your mind continues to level up
I get better every day
but the night never comes
where I go to bed with someone
and maybe that’s God’s way of saying
I’m not meant to be loved.
– Valerie Parente (5-20-2020)
Praying To Be Heard by Valerie Parente
I don’t know what’s more devastating,
holding onto things that are never said
or saying things that are never read.
– Valerie Parente (5-7-2020)
Love Vs. Obsession (One in the Same) by Valerie Parente
What is the difference between love and obsession?
Because the two are synonymous in a mind like mine.
And I’m really not trying to cross a line
but I can’t control the way feelings reorganize my mind.
Why is obsession only beautiful
when obsession is mutual?
You say I have to apologize when I care in that beautiful way
Everybody else gets to experience love without the shame
Now the girl with OCD starts to love and it’s called insane
But I really can’t help it that love and obsession have always been one in the same.
– Valerie Parente (4-24-2020)
Valerie’s Thesis by Valerie Parente
If there’s one goal in my social life it’s to enchant another person’s mind
The perfect interaction is a transaction where I teach you and you teach me
Just promise you’ll teach me without being preachy
because I thrive on being enlightened and I die when you condescend
so help me understand the world outside and I’ll translate the art sitting in your psyche.
Nothing bothers me more than when someone thinks I’m just a dumb girl
because inside my mind is a large web of things that make me obsessed
and I know that comes across like I can’t find my thoughts.
The truth is I just struggle with my words when I have to speak them into the world
but give me paper and a pen to write and I promise I’ll blow your mind.
I know it sounds pretentious but if I’m being perfectly honest
I’d rather you read what I write than see my picture and click “like”
Yes I still have an aesthetic but that’s just the visual poetry of my intellect
If I have to post my face to get your attention and enter the conversation
then I’ll gladly pose in place only to switch your direction to mental reflection.
I believe our minds are a never-ending storm given a body in this crazy world
that God gave us physical anatomy as our way of making sense of mentality
The pain that comes with having an ego serves to recognize the other in a collective soul
So you better be damn sure that if I find another mind that can discuss this even one time
then I’m going to hold onto that conversation like it’s my most valuable human connection.
– Valerie Parente (4-16-2020)
A Germaphobe’s Hell by Valerie Parente
When someone else understands the anxiety I’ve been feeling for half my life
I don’t feel comfort, I feel competition.
I worked from the inside out to walk through this hell
and now you’re telling me to turn around and walk with everyone else.
No, I don’t want the world to change their mind and say that my mental strife was justified
don’t tell me that my fears were right all along.
Why would I want to see my disorder become mainstream
after you spent years telling me that my pain is unique?
I understand the necessity to chain us all down as a way to protect ourselves
but I can’t pretend it doesn’t feel like hell
to be told to back-track all your progress
because now it really is a matter of life or death.
– Valerie Parente (4-13-2020)
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