Slaying demons.

So I'm not being a slacker and quitting the poetry challenge, I'm just not doing today's because I don't like it and I don't feel inspired by it and I think it's wrong to write poetry about something that doesn't truly inspire you. But there's something I wanted to talk about instead. My whole life, I've fought with a horde of monsters and demons that take over my brain and try to make things bad and make me do bad things, and for most of my life, I've let them win. (That's why I chose the screen name I use on most of the internet, by the way. It's my reminder to fight.) For the past several years, I've hated myself for this. I've felt like I have to fight, but I've never felt I had something worth fighting for, so I've never fought. For a while, the demons went away, like they do sometimes, and like always, they're coming back now. But recently, I've found reasons to fight--I've found things worth living for. For a while, I was truly happy, in a way that made my chest hurt--in a good way. So now I've got a fighting tactic that I'm going to try, and so far it's working: Every time the demons make an appearance in my day, I think of all the things I have to live for. And so here is a list I'm going to share with you of some of the things that have made me happy.

• Two of my favorite novels are being made into movies.
• Both of those novels are novels I've WANTED to see as movies (one was a movie, but I've been itching for a more modern version).
• So far, neither of these movies seem to suck.
• I have a group of friends that love me as much as I love them, for the first time.
• Matt has forgiven me completely and totally.
• It's like I'm falling in love for the first time all over again, except this time I'm less scared.
• I still have my books. No matter what, my fictional worlds are still there.
• I've finally found the place where I belong.