A Life That Feels Like Yours

At the end of the day,

when the world is done asking,

and no one needs you to smile on cue,

or rise to the occasion,

or meet the mark -

when the lights are off,

and the house settles into silence,

and your phone isn’t buzzing

with other people’s expectations -

what’s left?

*

It’s not the likes.

Not the endless comparison.

Not the heavy coat of “shoulds”

you wore all day like armor.

It’s just you.

And the breath in your lungs.

And the beating of a heart

that’s been with you through everything -

even the moments you hated yourself.

Even the ones you tried to disappear in.

It’s the way the floor feels under bare feet,

the way your name sounds

when you whisper it in the dark.

It’s the ache in your chest

when you realize how long

you’ve been trying to outrun your own softness

just to belong.

*

And maybe today,

you didn’t conquer the world.

Maybe you didn’t check all the boxes

or look like the version of you

someone else dreamed up.

Maybe you fell short -

in the eyes of people

who were never really looking at you at all.

But you were there.

Fully.

In every breath.

You made choices.

You felt things.

You stayed.

You tried.

You lived.

And that matters more than anyone knows.

*

Because behind all the noise -

behind the grind and the image

and the pressure to perform

and to be more and to want more

and to prove you’re not falling behind -

there is a quieter truth

waiting to be heard:

You are not a project to perfect.

You are not a reflection of their approval.

You are not a race to be won,

a mold to be poured into,

a story told by someone else’s pen.

You are a life -

messy, tender, unfinished,

but alive.

And that’s sacred.

*

Let yourself grieve

every version of you

that was built only to be loved

by people who didn’t know how.

Let yourself rest

from the exhausting game

of trying to be palatable.

Let yourself remember

what it feels like

to be safe inside your own skin,

to move without performance,

to breathe without apology.

Ask yourself:

Who am I, when no one is watching?

When the world stops expecting?

When I stop pretending?

That version -

the one who laughs too loud,

cries when songs hit too close,

speaks in rambles and metaphors,

forgets their keys,

loves without instruction -

that version is the one

that was always supposed to stay.

*

So let the masks fall.

Let the timelines burn.

Let the noise crash into itself

while you sit quietly in your truth.

You don’t have to be better to be worthy.

You don’t have to be impressive to be enough.

You don’t have to keep running

to be loved.

You are allowed to choose a softer life -

a truer one.

A slower one.

One built from the inside out.

A life that feels like yours.

And if all you ever do

is wake up in the morning

and breathe into the body you live in,

and choose, again and again,

to stay with yourself -

that is more than enough.

That is everything to me:)