Souls dipped in the gooey melted juice of popsicles and laughter, lake water and chlorinated pools, bubble bath basins and the blood of childhood boo-boos.

Souls dipped in broken glass and the black rolling mud of death, the deepest purple and black and blue, the terrifying knowledge adulthood should bring.

Souls dipped in unwanted attention, the quiet beg for loneliness, the loud quaking need for solitude instead of fortitude.

Souls dipped like bananas in an ice cream bar, the combinations sometimes making sense-- other times, things like chocolate and wasabi are mixed for a particularly strange child. The looks of other people in line, the server and even their own reluctant mother with her quiet protests unphased the young child from making her choice of the peculiarly disgusting chocolate and wasabi mix. Why is wasabi even on the table of a banana dessert bar?

The answer, though seemingly complex is the simplest of all time.

Because everything that happens to you shapes you, being dipped in glass and wasabi or the burning lack of love shapes you to be who you are; you are beautiful and you are strong.