They never taught you how to trust yourself

Woman,

They never taught you how to trust yourself.

Not really.

They taught you how to follow rules.

How to be agreeable.

How to make people comfortable.

How to question your instincts

and second-guess your knowing.

They taught you how to shrink when you feel too much.

How to smile when something hurts.

How to carry the weight of others

and call it kindness.

They praised you when you were quiet.

When you put yourself last.

When you didn’t ask for too much.

When you didn’t take up space.

They never told you

that your body is wise.

That your rage is holy.

That your boundaries are sacred.

That your hunger is not shameful.

That your longing is not a weakness.

So you learned to hide the parts of you

that felt inconvenient.

Too loud.

Too sensitive.

Too wild.

Too much.

You learned how to live in pieces.

To give everyone else a version of you

they could handle.

To keep the real you tucked away

in a place no one could touch.

But still,

she lived.

The you beneath the masks.

The you who cries when she sees beauty.

The you who wants more than just survival.

The you who dreams with her whole body.

The you who knows, without evidence,

that she was made for something deeper.

She has never stopped whispering.

In the quiet moments.

In the ache you couldn’t explain.

In the fire you felt when you heard another woman

speak her truth out loud.

She’s not gone.

She’s waiting.

Waiting for you to stop performing.

To stop trying to be chosen.

To stop trying to be pleasing

at the cost of being real.

You don’t have to become someone new.

You only have to become someone true.

You are not too much.

You are not too emotional.

You are not too ambitious.

You are not too soft.

You are not too honest.

You are not too slow.

You are not too deep.

You are the exact right amount of everything

you were meant to be.

You do not need permission

to return to yourself.

Let the world adjust

to the real you.

Let them feel the truth in your voice.

Let them witness your becoming.

Let them sit with the discomfort

of a woman who no longer betrays herself

just to belong.

Because you were never made to be easy.

You were made to be real.

And real women

change everything.