This wasn’t a phase. This wasn’t a lesson. This was a war. And I was inside it. [Verse 1] I didn’t hear about the fire — I burned. Didn’t read the pages — I bled every word. While they watched from the sidelines, I was choking on smoke, learning how to breathe with my chest caved in. They slept through the sirens. I stayed awake through generations. Every scream that wasn’t allowed found a home in my veins. This wasn’t theory. This was survival. [Pre-Chorus] They call it history. I call it memory in muscle. They call it over. I call it still living under my skin. [Chorus] THIS WAS A WAR AND I FELT IT ALL EVERY LOSS EVERY FALL I DIDN’T VISIT THE DARK I LIVED IN IT RELIVED IT BLED THROUGH IT TILL I STOOD UP IN IT THIS WAS A WAR DON’T CALL IT PAIN I CARRIED THE FIRE SO IT COULD END WITH ME [Verse 2] I relived it in dreams, in silence, in rooms that felt safe but weren’t. My body kept score when my mouth couldn’t speak. I carried the dead. I carried the grief. I carried the stories nobody wanted to believe. They ask why I’m intense. Why I don’t forget. You don’t forget a battlefield when it trained your nervous system. [Pre-Chorus] They got distance. I got scars. They got time. I got every moment stacked on my heart. [Chorus] THIS WAS A WAR AND I FELT IT ALL NOT FROM A DISTANCE FROM THE FALL I DIDN’T WATCH IT HAPPEN I WAS THE GROUND THE IMPACT THE AFTERMATH THE SOUND THIS WAS A WAR AND I’M STILL HERE THAT’S NOT WEAKNESS THAT’S WHAT SURVIVAL LOOKS LIKE [Bridge] I begged for rest with my hands shaking. I begged for peace while still standing guard. I didn’t choose this battlefield— but I finished it. Every trigger I survived became a weapon I disarmed. [Break – spoken / shouted] You didn’t feel it in your bones. You didn’t carry it in your blood. So don’t tell me to move on from something I had to become strong enough to outlive. [Final Chorus – full force] THIS WAS A WAR AND I REMEMBER EVERYTHING EVERY NIGHT EVERY NAME EVERY THING I WAS THE ONE WHO HELD THE LINE WHEN THERE WAS NO END IN SIGHT THIS WAS A WAR AND I WON’T BE QUIET I SURVIVED IT TO END IT TO NAME IT TO BREAK THE CYCLE OF VIOLENCE FORGED TO END THE MADNESS FORGED BY THE WAR I SURVIVED [Outro] I’m not broken. I’m not dramatic. I’m a veteran of something you never had to fight. And I’m still standing.

I felt the whole war