Imagine dark sunglasses that provide just enough light to live without strain. Just enough so you can see the shapes around you but not their color. Just enough so you can see your clothes but in various shades of grey. Just enough so you can live but not really living. The glasses didn’t stop your heart or take away your oxygen, but they took away your passion, color, and happiness.

I had those glasses for a long time. It’s like they were superglued to my face, and as much as I tried to get them off, it eventually became too debilitating because they were stuck. I was stuck. It was defeating not being able to get the filter out of my life. I wanted to see the world like everyone else seemed to see it. I wanted to not live in a world where everyone had colored lenses while I had black tinted ones.

I saw the same flowers as everyone else, but mine looked distorted. The shriveled sunflowers that my lenses allowed me to see were different than the happy, nourished flowers the colored lenses showed. My mind was distorted like the flowers. The lenses not only misconstrued my vision but my head, too. The black world shown was just a visual representation of my mind; the darkness I saw replicated my dark thoughts. I didn’t ask for these lenses. I didn’t agree to the terms and conditions, and I wasn’t aware that I wouldn’t be able to get them off.

But one day, I could. I could get them off. Each day, a tiny bit of the glue that attached the world-altering glasses to my face became unstuck. Little by little, I could see the vibrant shades of color in the sky. The shriveled flowers sat upright, they looked happier. I became happier. The dark glasses ruined my life, diminished any color in the world, and when I could finally see the beauty in the sunset I was overwhelmed. I had a new feeling, a feeling that the glasses took away from me.

Pleasure.

I no longer see the world through a dark lens. I see color now, and it’s exhilarating. It’s so lovely to look at the world with the colored glasses that everyone else seemed to have. It’s so lovely to see my radiant wardrobe and the different hues of the clouds at various points in the day. It’s so lovely to be alive again.

Seeing life through the colored lenses is breathtakingly beautiful. I love welcoming each new day with a smile. I love not having the black weighing me down, controlling my thoughts. The dark, calamitous thoughts I once had are now replaced with what I can only describe as yellow. Yellow is a happy color, and my mind is full of it. Yellow is the color of sunflowers, the warm sun, spring, freshly-squeezed lemonade, and most of all, happiness. My mind is at ease because of the colored lenses, and I am forever grateful for them. The black glasses I once had are out the window, buried in rock bottom– a place I never want to go back to.

I owe my new, happy feelings to the colored lenses. They gave me a new sense of pleasure and pure excitement for the world around me. It’s a lovely feeling that I don’t want to ever slip away. I am content and at ease now; I’m finally alive.