POETRY | SELF-LOVE | SELF-ESTEEM

To Walk My Own Path

It’s lonely… but it’s respectful

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I used to think
I had to be the best —
the brightest,
the sharpest,
the one they’d never forget.
But the world doesn’t need
another trophy on display,
just someone
real enough to stay.

So I stopped chasing eyes
that never saw me,
stopped holding on to hands
that let go too easily.
If someone wants to be here,
they will be —
but not at the cost of what makes me, me.

It’s tempting, isn’t it?
To be needed,
to be noticed,
to be the one
they call first.
But I’d rather be valued
than always available,
rather be respected than
just reachable.

No one is coming
to carry my weight,
no one is here to gather
the thoughts I let fade.
So I pick them up, one by one,
and walk forward —
on my own, yet never alone.