I should have been a pair of ragged claws, Scuttling across the floors of silent seas.

This phrase, more than any other I've ever read, captures how I feel about myself when I think about whether or not I'm enough: good enough, smart enough, healthy enough, etc.

I read The Love Song of J. Alfred Prufrock in eleventh grade. And, I don't think I've read it all the way through ever since. But, I remember that line. I memorized it in a single reading. I remember being astonished by how accurately a turn of phrase could articulate how I felt inside.

Now a days, the quote wafts through my head from time to time. Usually, it has nothing to do with anything. But, it always reminds me of the emptiness of shame.