the walk way

She was an envious girl, but envy was never the whole story.

She wanted success more than anything. Not fame for the sake of attention, not wealth for the sake of luxury—she wanted proof that all her suffering had meant something. She wanted to become someone the world could never overlook.

But the world was rarely kind to her.

Every time she reached for something, someone seemed to have already taken it. Every achievement was compared to someone else’s. Every dream was met with doubt. She watched people less determined than her succeed while she struggled for scraps of recognition, and slowly, admiration turned into resentment.

She began keeping score.

She envied the beautiful girl who received love effortlessly. The talented girl who was praised without begging for it. The wealthy girl who never had to worry about tomorrow. She hated herself for feeling jealous, but she couldn’t stop. The more the world denied her, the more desperately she wanted what everyone else seemed to have.

And somewhere along the way, her desire for success stopped being a dream and became an obsession.

She told herself that once she finally made it, everything would make sense. The loneliness. The rejection. The humiliation. The nights she cried where nobody could see.

She just had to win.

But the world had taught her how to survive before it ever taught her how to live—and she was beginning to wonder how much of herself she would have to destroy to become the person she always dreamed of being.