Here's to everyday

There were days I stood with a white flag trembling in my hands, and other days my heart lay heavy like flour on the floor while my mind drifted, unanchored, lost in quiet nothingness. I questioned my weight in this world, whether I mattered, whether my steps were even facing the right direction. I made sacrifices that rose like smoke and vanished without leaving warmth behind. There were moments I wanted to dissolve, to slip off the surface of everything familiar and begin again in a land ruled by solitude where no one needed me, where love, friendship, family were distant blurs, unrecognizable shapes. I lived on the outside, always watching in. I dressed wounds I never caused, tried to heal pain handed to me without consent. I learned to be gentle as armor, to cry as medicine, to laugh as a shield and sometimes it felt small, even foolish. But that season has passed. It is over now. I choose me. What I learned was this: I must protect myself more fiercely. Not everything deserves access. Not every weight is mine to carry. It is time to sacrifice for me. To appreciate me. To love me; without apology. To take care of me. To place myself at the center of my own life and keep only what make