I was always the quiet one Not because I didn’t feel things but because I felt them too much rooms were loud and I preferred the corners the ones where the light hits gently where no one watches but everything grows Do I belong here? I asked myself that more than once Not loudly just in passing Just in silence I watched people like stories listened like it was a language I knew when the wind was about to shift I knew when someone was pretending to be okay Am I the only one who sees these things? Sometimes I felt invisible Other times like I was the only one truly seeing My childhood wasn’t loud It was full of tiny moments: the smell of fresh notebooks windows after the rain the way my heart beat when someone called my name gently I found comfort in soft things a warm cup of tea blankets that smelled like home and the way my mother’s voice would lower when she was proud Why do I remember the little things more than the big ones? Maybe because the little things were where I felt safe Back then I didn’t know what I was becoming I only knew that I didn’t quite fit in the noise But I knew I wasn’t meant to stay hidden forever There was something soft in me a quiet bloom a whisper of something more Like the first bud in spring that pushes through cold soil fragile but certain small but full of promise Will they ever understand this part of me? Maybe they don’t need to Maybe I just need to understand it myself I wasn’t waiting to be noticed I was waiting to become And that takes time That takes silence That takes the kind of patience no one teaches you only the soul understands it And now when I look back I realize that my quiet wasn’t emptiness It was a seed And even in the silence I was already growing Sometimes I wondered “Is there something wrong with me?” Why did I find comfort in shadows in the unnoticed the unheard? But slowly I started to understand it wasn’t wrong It was different And maybe different was my superpower I didn’t need to be loud to be seen I just needed to see myself first And in those quiet corners where light spilled like a secret I whispered to myself “ It’s okay You’re allowed to be this soft This deep " I wasn’t a void I was a quiet beginning

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