What is Your Shining Light in the Dark?

Photo by Bogomil Mihaylov on Unsplash

Do you have something in your life that helped you out of dark situations? Something you could turn to and it would disappear the clouds from the sky? Luckily, I found that thing at a very young age.

When I was younger about 5 years old, I used to be afraid of ghost. I would hide underneath my blanket when the clock ticked 12pm or 00:00h. I would stay there for about 5 minutes, trying so hard to put my mind at ease, telling myself “ghosts are not real, ghosts are not real”. At some point, I told myself that if there would be sound and light, then there would be no darkness and therefore no ghosts. Still, I couldn’t bring sound or light with me, I had to create it, I had to be it. So, instead of hiding at 12pm/00:00h I started singing, really softly just enough for me to hear and to let those ghosts know, there was no darkness here.

By the age of 10, my mom and I had to move because a fire broke out due to a short circuit in our Christmas tree lighting. It was always my mom’s dream to live in a bigger city, so this unlucky event created an opportunity. So, there I went, a young girl from a small village to one of the biggest cities in the Netherlands. The fire happened in the middle of my school year and therefore I was the new weird kid starting in the middle of a semester. I say ‘weird’ because I was just different than those city kids, I had a different accent and wore different clothes. You can only imagine, that I was the first target for bullies to pick on.

Always find a reason to smile. It may not add years to your life, but it surely adds life to your years.

At this age, I was a very shy, quiet and insecure girl. The only people that ever told me I was amazing were my parents but at school, I was the ‘village kid’. My parents and I were very close but for some reason, I never wanted to talk about it and I hid it away in myself. The only way I was able to deal with the bullying and missing my old friends at the other school was to sing about it. So, this is exactly what I did every day looking for a spot where I could be alone. I made sure no one was around and I would sing, sing and sing my own songs until the tears ran down my cheeks. Even though everything that happened, I see this part of my life as a happy experience, I was untouchable if I would sing my sorrows away. Singing again was my savior and it became my hero to show me the light in the dark.

What is your light in the darkness and how did you discover it?

Curious how it would sound like? Here is an example of me 6 years ago, when I had developed my singing into my all-time hobby. Still, till this time, I would use singing to express my feelings and it is the greatest feeling ever.

Vivienne van der Velden is a digital marketing student at San Jose State University. She is learning more about social media account and wants to share her knowledge with you. She is following her passion of becoming a Content Creator or Social Media Manager. Connect with Vivienne on LinkedIn, Instagram, Facebook and Twitter.