I Outlived the Version of Me You Loved

Verse 1

You loved me when I was easier to bend

When my silence kept the peace, not the truth in my chest

I fit in your hands like a habit you knew

Back when I needed approval like oxygen too

I wore your comfort like borrowed skin

Called shrinking myself “trying to win”

You smiled more when I stayed unsure

When I doubted my worth, you felt secure

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Pre-Chorus

Funny how growth sounds like betrayal

When you benefit from someone staying small

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Chorus

I outlived the version of me you loved

The one who apologized just to belong

The one who stayed when it cost too much

And called endurance “being strong”

You miss the man I was before I knew

That surviving wasn’t the same as truth

I outlived the version of me you loved

And now you don’t recognize me at all

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Verse 2

You say I changed like it’s something I stole

Like I owed you the weight of my old control

You miss the days I asked permission to breathe

When my dreams stayed quiet so yours stayed clean

I stopped confusing peace with delay

Stopped bleeding just to make you stay

I didn’t leave you, I just grew

Past the damage I learned with you

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Pre-Chorus

You call it distance, I call it repair

I finally stopped meeting you halfway to nowhere

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Chorus

I outlived the version of me you loved

The one who broke slow and called it fate

The one who carried all the blame

So you never had to change

You miss the man who needed you

More than he needed his own truth

I outlived the version of me you loved

And I won’t apologize for the proof

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Bridge

If becoming whole makes me unfamiliar

Let that be the cost of survival

I don’t hate you — I just can’t stay

In a past that begged me to decay

I didn’t rise to hurt your view

I rose because I almost disappeared with you

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Final Chorus

I outlived the version of me you loved

The one who mistook fear for fate

I learned the difference between holding on

And knowing when to walk away

You don’t miss me — you miss control

You miss the man who didn’t know

I outlived the version of me you loved

And this one finally feels like home

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Outro

I didn’t become someone else

I just survived long enough

To become myself