The Scintillating Self

I will endlessly remember when my friend asked me for the first time what colour I thought I was

and I said confidently,

"If I was a colour I would be Red."

"You see, Red is bright. It has depth. It demands to be seen, existing somewhere between the almost invisible whiteness of yellow and the subtle darkness of blue, or green. Red is made to be paired, it needs a partner, a theme to shine - the dark turns red angry, the light makes it romantic. Red juxtaposes- never shying away from being itself, it makes itself known. Red’s wavelength fluctuates between 620–750 nanometers, sitting confidently at edge of what we can see. It hints at the invisible beauty of the sky and earth, the secrets beyond our eyes. It is the color of the stars yet to be born and stars well past their prime. It is a color of beginnings, middles, and endings."

I will endlessly remember when my friend asked me for the first time what colour I thought I was

and how they said they wanted to be like Green

"Green is life. It reminds me to forever grow, to forever push against gravity and become taller purely for the sake of existing bigger. It is everywhere and is ever coming. The slow growing moss and algae take over old, abandoned brutalist buildings, a mosaic of green that reminds me the overwhelming power of slow consistency."

"If I was a colour I would be Green"

I loved it so much I stole a piece of green and stitched it onto my soul. And began to ask too see the colours inside other people

"I would want to be Yellow; the way sunlight falls gently on my skin."

"Oh I am definitely Orange, like early sunrises and late sunsets, envelop every new day in their embrace."

“Easy. Blue. The sky is the largest tête-à-tête conversation you can have with colour, and it speaks to my soul”

So I stitched and sewed, and stitched and sewed, and stitched and sewed

I will endlessly remember when my friend asked me for the first time what colour I thought I was

and how I have become a patchwork of them ever since

a motley soul: forever a variegated scintilla of all those I was lucky enough to meet.