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fibroPoems
They taught us all the same story— chase the shining life, climb the ladder rung by rung, collect the milestones like charms that are supposed to glow once you finally hold them. But what if the glow was a lie? What if happiness was just a word they carved into the air to keep us walking forward, to stop us from asking why the world feels so hollow? They said: find love, build a home, work hard and you’ll feel whole. But I did those things, or watched others do them, and the world didn’t shift, the emptiness didn’t fade— the prize never matched the promise. Some days it seems like everyone is pretending the same pretend, smiling on command, acting out a happiness no one truly feels, as if the truth would crack the world open if we dared to speak it aloud. Maybe the biggest lie of all is that joy is a destination, waiting like a treasure. Yet every time we arrive, the chest is full of dust. And I’m left wondering if anyone really believes the story— or if we’re all just trying not to admit that nothing feels the way they said it would.
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Dec 1, 2025
Dec 1, 2025 at 4:11 PM UTC
The Lie We Were Taught
They taught us all the same story— chase the shining life, climb the ladder rung by rung, collect the milestones like charms that are supposed to glow once you finally hold them. But what if the glow was a lie? What if happiness was just a word they carved into the air to keep us walking forward, to stop us from asking why the world feels so hollow? They said: find love, build a home, work hard and you’ll feel whole. But I did those things, or watched others do them, and the world didn’t shift, the emptiness didn’t fade— the prize never matched the promise. Some days it seems like everyone is pretending the same pretend, smiling on command, acting out a happiness no one truly feels, as if the truth would crack the world open if we dared to speak it aloud. Maybe the biggest lie of all is that joy is a destination, waiting like a treasure. Yet every time we arrive, the chest is full of dust. And I’m left wondering if anyone really believes the story— or if we’re all just trying not to admit that nothing feels the way they said it would.
Written by
fibro
23/F/Belgium
Dec 1, 2025
Dec 1, 2025 at 4:11 PM UTC
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