The World we live

Finding myself again

They took pieces of me—
each betrayal, each harsh word,
like a thief in the night,
stealing bits of my spirit, my light.
I gave so much of myself away
trying to please, trying to be enough
for those who never saw my worth.
I bent and broke until I no longer recognized
the face staring back at me in the mirror.
I was lost, drifting,
a shadow of who I once was.

I thought if I could just fix myself,
I'd be worthy again.
Worthy of love, of kindness,
of the dreams I had long abandoned.
But no matter how much I changed,
how much I tried to perfect myself,
it was never enough—
not for them, and not for me.

But now, after the storms,
after the battles I fought just to breathe,
I am starting to see the truth:
that my worth isn't found in anyone else's hands.
It isn't defined by who left,
or who stayed, or who betrayed me.
It's something that has been within me all along,
buried beneath the rubble of their words,
hidden under the scars of their cruelty.

I am learning to speak to myself
not with the harshness of their voices,
but with the gentleness I deserve.
Learning that it's okay to take up space,
to exist just as I am, flawed and uncertain.
I am piecing myself back together,
but this time, it's on my own terms.
This time, I am not trying to fit
into the mold they tried to force me into.

There are days I still stumble,
still hear their whispers in the back of my mind.
But I am learning to silence them
with a louder truth—
that I am enough.
I was always enough,
even when they tried to convince me otherwise.

So here I stand, slowly, steadily
learning to love the person I've become
through all the brokenness and the healing.
I am not perfect, nor will I ever be,
but I am mine—whole, messy, real.
And in this newfound acceptance,
I am finding a freedom I never thought possible.

Because maybe the greatest journey
isn't in seeking someone else's love
but in finally learning to love yourself.
In seeing the beauty in your own reflection,
in reclaiming the parts of you
that you thought were lost forever.
And here, in this moment,
I am finding myself again—
not as they wanted me to be,
but as I was always meant to be.