They said I was too quiet,
like silence meant I broke
But storms don’t always thunder,
sometimes they just choke.

I wore a mask of "I’m fine,"
stitched from every lie I knew,
Tried to blend in with the shadows
just to dodge what I’d been through.

The mirror became a war zone,
my reflection, not my friend,
Every scar a souvenir
of trying hard to pretend.

But I’m more than all my doubters,
more than every “you won’t last,”
I built a future out of ashes,
from the pieces of my past.

So here I stand, still breathing,
cracked but full of fight
A flame they couldn’t smother,
a soul still chasing light.

They can keep their empty echoes,
their scripts, their plastic crown
'Cause I’ve learned to write my story,
and I’m never backing down.