Things I've Learned

I used to suck up oxygen from other people

I used to think I was only as important as 

He made me out to be.

I used to think I needed someone else 

to be happy. I used to think I had to be someone else

just to be accepted.

I wasn't a happy child.

I used to find reasons not to go home in the afternoons

Because I don't like to go home for reasons I don't like

to talk about but I am more than what I was told

and I am more than what was done to me.

I am more than the intolerance shoved down my throat.

I am more than the clothes I wear or the length of my hair, 

those things don't make me who I am.

I do.

I don't need someone else's opinion to validate me

and I don't need four walls and a roof to protect me 

My body is a temple and it is strong enough to

hold me up when my heart doesn't have the strength.

I am strong enough to overcome the hand I have been dealt

and I don't need anything but my two stong arms.

All I need is this vessel, pumping blood, 

feeling soft grass between my fingers, 

streaming tears down my face, precidented or not.

I am strong enough now and I am all I need.