To The Girl I Was.

You were always trying. To be good. To be quiet. To be enough.

I see you now, the way you held your breath in rooms that didn’t feel safe, the way you apologized before anyone asked, the way you tried to earn love by disappearing.

You didn’t know that love wasn’t supposed to be conditional. You didn’t know that being “easy” wasn’t the same thing as being cherished. You didn’t know that your voice mattered…even when it trembled.

I want to tell you that you were never too much. You were never not enough. You were just…you. And that should have been enough.

I wish I could go back and sit beside you on the nights you felt like a burden. I’d braid your hair and tell you that you don’t have to be perfect to be held.

You were brave in ways no one saw. You were soft in ways no one protected. You were worthy in ways no one acknowledged.

I’m building a life now where you don’t have to earn safety. Where your feelings aren’t inconvenient. Where your voice is not only allowed, it’s honored.

You don’t have to be quiet anymore. You don’t have to be good to be loved. You don’t have to disappear to belong.

I see you.

I love you.

I’m not leaving.