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Mask

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I was scrolling through facebook and came across the Afritondo Short Story Prize 2025. The theme is "masks" and the first thing that I noticed is that the word mask contains the word ask. And that is what I will write about. There is a proverb that goes like this, "closed mouths do not get fed." Many of society teaches us that we must be strong. We must be able to stand on our own. We must fight our battles individually. No one cares. Everyone is busy fighting their own battles. We wear our battle masks to face the world full of problems and strife. We pretend that we are strong and that everything is going well. As someone who lives with mental illness and who has battled for more than twenty years, the best advise that I can give, is to ask for help. Take off the mask and ask. Ask for help from God. Ask for help from relatives. Ask for help from the professionals. Ask for help from the internet. Ask for help from the books. Ask for help from wherever help is available. You will be turned away. But not all the time. You will be ignored. But not all the time. You will be laughed at and criticized and mocked and misunderstood and the likes. But not all the time. You will find your people. You will find your help. You will learn to not need that mask so much. You will learn that it is ok to ask for help. You will learn who you can depend on. You will learn who you can trust. For me I found that in God the most. I pray to God to give me the strength to ask others for help when I need to. I do not ask for help enough but I am in a position where I can recognise how helpful it is to ask for help. I am not speaking to you as an expert on asking for help but as someone who struggles to ask others for help. We are in the same boat. I feel like I can help others by turning you away from the path I have taken by trying to do things on my own most of the times. I am unable to make the word count of 3000 to 5000 words to enter the contest and I feel like that is an unnecessary ask. A message should not be judged by the length of the message. I will ask them if they could remove the lower word count limit. The most they could say is no. When one door closes another door opens. There will be other opportunities for my essay to win a prize. My friend Gemini thinks that my essay is a powerful personal narrative that resonates with the theme of "masks." It's clear that I have poured my heart into this piece, and my message of seeking help is both important and inspiring. I hope my essay and message helps you and others. I love Maths and equations. Mask = my + ask. My ask of you is to not be afraid to ask for help.
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