‘Are you for real?’ by Bethany Welsh, Year 10, Castle View Academy, Portsmouth

What is real and what’s not, 

Something many argue about and truly few know.

Nothing feels real, not really, not when your stuck in a day-by-day system rewinding and repeating just to regret everything you say over and over again. An asteroid burns brighter than the sun. But does it really? Two souls do not meet on accident. Or do they? These are things that we can not dictate if it’s real or not, it’s all perception, we can only rely on what feels real and feelings change persistently. But something changed when I met you, it felt real. I felt real, everything I thought I had deceived myself with felt real. Until it didn’t anymore. Until the real blended with fake and nobody could keep up not even ourselves, going at a pace so impossible it made us sick. Give it your all or nothing they say and I beg to differ, why give your all to false hope but why give nothing to what could be something. Youth is messy but it’s also cherished, filled with false confidence and pity parties with a hint of truth, it could be some of the best years of your life, or it could not. That is a risk you have to take for yourself and stay true to those around you. Prove to yourself that you are real, this is real. I’m for real. But are you for real?