Pāhonoa te oro

How do you smile… when nothing inside you feels okay?” I’ve tried… so many times. To fit in… To belong… To be like everyone else. I laughed when they laughed… I stayed quiet when I was hurting… I pretended I was fine… even when I wasn’t. But no matter what I did… it never felt real. Because the truth is… the more I tried to fit in… the more I lost myself. And one day… I realized something. Maybe I was never meant to fit in. Maybe being different… is not my weakness. Maybe it’s my strength.