I've been this much too long...

Have you ever caught your own reflection in a mirror and wondered who the person you saw was? Nothing has changed, you see and scrutinize the same features every day, no traumatic changes in your life. And yet, somehow, when you look at the face you wear, you realize that everyone else's face in the world seems more familiar. Loved ones, friends, someone you have not seen since college or even elementary school seems more correct than the face you see each and every day. You can recognize yourself in photos, but your own image has turned into a word you have read so often and looked at so long you cannot even tell if it is even in the language you speak or a word any longer.

I experience this often, with no difference between whether I am cleaned up or fresh from the shower. Clothing, makeup, demeanor makes no change. Sometimes, even when I am completely in my head, I wonder if I am even me, and if this face I wear is trully my face, or something magically the mirror shows to distract me from the true image I give to the world.