Can't Hold Me Down

They told me

Slow down

Stay small

Stay safe

I heard them

I just never let them

Decide my distance

I took the long roads

The wrong turns

The late nights that felt

Too early to quit

I lived my life my way

Face first into every fear

Not because I knew I’d win

But because I refused to disappear

I made my own choices

Even when my voice shook

Even when their doubt

Was louder than my name

I walked past every line

They tried to draw around me

I never held back

I never learned to stay the same

They measured me

With rulers built for someone else

Said “this is far enough”

Said “people like you

Don’t go there”

But I was never “people like you”

I was scraped knees and second chances

I was “watch me”

Spoken through gritted teeth

Every limit they loved

I treated like wet paint

Pressed my hands into it

Left fingerprints on every wall

They swore I’d never reach

I made my own choices

Even when my voice shook

Even when their doubt

Was louder than my name

I walked past every line

They tried to draw around me

I never held back

I never learned to stay the same

Did I stumble?

Often

Did I break?

Sometimes

But I never broke the promise

I made to the kid I used to be

To try

Before I said “I can’t”

To leap

Before I shrank

I made my own choices

Even when my voice shook

Even when their doubt

Was louder than my name

I walked past every line

They tried to draw around me

I never held back

I never learned to stay the same

So when they ask

Who taught you to be this way?

I say

No one

I just stopped believing

Anyone else

Could tell me

Who I’m allowed to be