You Never Met Me Like This

You knew the girl who bent to fit you

Soft edges, quiet, folding small

You knew the one who stayed too long

Trying not to lose it all

You heard me speak in careful sentences

Afraid of how the truth might land

But you never saw me standing

In a room I filled with just my hands

I was learning how to hold myself

Without asking if I could

Saying my own name out loud

Like I always should

You never met me like this

Steady hands, unafraid

You never heard how my voice

Learned the things you couldn’t say

I grew into someone

You wouldn’t recognize

Not because I changed for you

But because I chose my life

You never met me like this

I laugh now without looking over

For a sign that it’s okay

I make decisions in the open

I don’t second-guess my way

There’s a quiet where the storm was

There’s a light I didn’t borrow

And I don’t need to chase a feeling

I already have tomorrow

I don’t shrink to make it easy

I don’t twist to be understood

I stand inside my own reflection

And it finally feels like home should

You never met me like this

Steady hands, unafraid

You never heard how my voice

Learned the things you couldn’t say

I grew into someone

You wouldn’t recognize

Not because I changed for you

But because I chose my life

You never met me like this

Sometimes I wonder if you’d notice

If we passed on a crowded street

Would you see the light I’m holding now

Or just the ghost you used to meet

But I don’t need that answer anymore

I don’t need you to believe

There’s a whole life in me now

You were never there to see

You never met me like this

Open heart, solid ground

You never heard how my silence

Turned into a different sound

I grew into someone

Who won’t disappear to survive

Not because you let me go

But because I chose my life

I learned to call myself home

And you never knew that name