I AM WHO I AM

I AM WHO I AM
I am who I am—
not who they said I should be,
Not the quiet reflection
they wanted to see.

Not the version I built
just to make it all fit,
Not the mask that I wore
every time I would split.

I am who I am—
through the noise, through the doubt,
Through the nights I went silent
but screamed inside out.

Through the cracks in my voice,
through the weight in my chest,
Through the war in my mind
that would not let me rest.

I tried to be softer,
I tried to be small,
Tried shrinking my shadow
so I wouldn’t stand tall.

I bent till I broke,
I smiled through the pain,
I carried their labels
like they were my name.

But something inside me
refused to stay gone,
A spark in the dark
that kept pushing me on.

It whispered, it echoed,
it wouldn’t let go—
“You are more than the things
that they think that they know.”

I am who I am—
not perfect, not clean,
A mix of the chaos
and all in between.

I am every scar,
every tear, every flame,
Every loss, every fight,
every version I became.

I am who I am—
not a mark, not a sign,
Not a role you can place
in a straight little line.

I am not their approval,
not what they demand,
Not the sum of their doubts
or the shape of their plan.

I am loud, I am quiet,
I am fire, I am rain,
I am healing, I’m breaking,
I’m the joy and the pain.

I am lost, I am found,
I am both at the same,
I am more than a label—

I am more than a name.

So I stand in the middle
of all that I’ve been,
Not afraid of the dark
or the light within.

No more hiding the truth,
no more trying to bend—
I don’t need to be perfect

to finally stand.

I am who I am—
and that’s more than enough,
Through the soft, through the sharp,
through the broken and rough.

I am still here, still whole,
still learning, still strong—

I am who I am…

and I’ve been it all along.