I’ve carried this weight since I was a child,
Rejection met me when I was too young to understand.
The words they threw stuck like barbed wire in my skin,
I grew up wearing it like an invisible cloak
Trying to be good enough, trying to fit in.
I learned early how to smile through the pain,
How to pretend I didn’t feel it,
But the silence in my heart screamed louder
Each time I was pushed away,
Each time they said I wasn’t enough.
As an adult, I thought it would fade,
That I could outgrow the ache of never belonging.
But it followed me
Into friendships, relationships,
Even into the mirror where I looked at myself
And wondered why I was always second best.
Every “no” echoed the rejections from my past,
Every closed door felt like a wall I couldn’t climb.
I built defenses so high,
Even I couldn’t find a way out sometimes.
Fear of hearing those words again,
“You’re not what we want, not what we need.”
But lately, I’ve been trying to listen
To the voice inside that never left
The one that whispered I was more than this hurt,
More than these labels they gave me.
I’m learning to speak back to the echoes,
Telling them, “I don’t need your approval anymore.”
It’s been a slow fight,
And I still stumble on the old scars,
But I’m finally giving myself
The acceptance I’ve chased for so long.
I’m learning to belong to me,
To rewrite the story, they tried to write for me.
And maybe, just maybe, that’s enough.
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