The Night I Stopped Apologizin

That night, a storm rose inside my chest and I chose to stop apologizing. I used to say sorry for being loud, sorry for being happy, even sorry for being sad. Sorry for being too ambitious, sorry for choosing peace, sorry for walking away, sorry for living life on my own terms. I apologized for protecting my heart, for choosing happiness over noise, for not shrinking when the world expected me to. But that night, something in me shifted. I realized I had been sorry for living in a world that never once said sorry to me. I had folded myself into smaller versions just to fit into rooms that were never built for me. So I stood not angry, just awakened. And that was the night I became my own permission.