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YOU VS. YOU

Everyone’s A Fighter: We Beat Ourselves Up All Day Long

The fight’s over, you won, you can stop attacking yourself now

Daniel Williams
Zenite
Published in
9 min readNov 23, 2024

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by author

My friend Timothy and I were on the school playground doing daring things:

  • jumping from the swings and flying
  • sliding down the slide sideways, upside down, and backwards
  • balancing on top of the monkey bars, the pull-up bars, and the railings of the bouncy bridge.

It was here, at the bouncy bridge, that I wronged my friend.

YOU: What’s a bouncy bridge?

ME: I’m sorry to hear you were chained to a cellar toilet all your life and are therefore unfamiliar with playgrounds and one of their most popular features: the bouncy bridge. Some call it a “clatter bridge” because of the sound it makes when you run over it. These bridges move when you walk on them. They wiggle. They bounce, got it? May I continue with the story?

YOU: Yes, but hurry. Mother heard me talking. I believe I’m about to get the hose again.

ME: What doesn’t kill you, am I right?

YOU: You sound just like Mother.

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Zenite
Zenite

Published in Zenite

Alchemy Publications’ haven for thought-provoking stories from all walks of the human experience and knowledge.

Daniel Williams
Daniel Williams

Written by Daniel Williams

A poverty-stricken soft Batman by night. Illustrator and writing teacher by day. Previously: McSweeney’s, Slackjaw.

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