Still standing strong

I grew up learning how to bend,

How to read a room before I spoke.

I learned to carry things alone,

And call it strength when it felt like hope.

I wasn’t loud, I wasn’t seen,

But I kept moving all the same.

I didn’t know what I was becoming,

I just knew I wouldn’t fade.

I didn’t win by being harder,

I survived by staying kind.

I’m still standing, still breathing,

After everything I faced.

I’m still giving, still believing,

Love is stronger than the pain.

I didn’t break, I didn’t run,

I became who I am.

I’m still standing here,

With an open heart,

As a man.

I carried doubt like it was truth,

Wore silence like a second skin.

I questioned every step I took,

Still I walked straight through the wind.

I didn’t always get it right,

I stumbled more than I will say.

But something in me chose to live,

Even on the hardest days.

I wasn’t fearless, I was real,

And that was more than enough.

I’m still standing, still breathing,

After everything I faced.

I’m still giving, still believing,

Love is stronger than the pain.

I didn’t break, I didn’t run,

I became who I am.

I’m still standing here,

With an open heart,

As a man.

Then love met me where I stood,

Not to fix me, not to change.

She saw the man behind the scars,

And loved me just the same.

She is strength in quiet ways,

A steady fire, a gentle flame.

And loving her taught me this:

You don’t have to bleed to be brave.

Now there’s a small hand holding mine,

Trusting me with open eyes.

And everything I once went through

Stops right here, it doesn’t pass.

If you dream beyond this place,

If you chase a bigger sky,

I won’t hold you back from life,

Just know I’m here, right by your side.

Everything I missed before,

I give away in love.

I’m still standing, still breathing,

With a family I chose.

I’m still giving, still believing,

In the life we’re building slow.

I didn’t lose, I didn’t fail,

I grew into my name.

I’m still standing here,

With an open heart,

And I wouldn’t change a thing.

I’m not who I was.

I’m who I became.

Still standing.

Still giving.