“THE WEIGHT WE NEVER SHOW”
Insecurities don’t always scream.
Sometimes, they whisper—
so softly, so cruelly—
“You’re not enough.”
“They’re going to leave you.”
“You’re only loved when you’re perfect.”
And we believe them—
not because we want to,
but because they sound familiar.
Because they’ve been echoing inside us for years,
shaped by moments we never fully healed from.
They don’t arrive in one big heartbreak.
They’re pieced together—
from a passing joke that stung more than it should’ve,
from being overlooked when you needed to be seen,
from the silence after you shared something brave,
from love that made you feel like you had to earn every bit of it.
So we learn to carry them quietly.
We tuck them behind eyeliner, behind laughter, behind
“I’m fine.”
We let them sit beside us,
even when all we want is to breathe freely.
But they don’t stay hidden.
They show up in how quickly we say sorry.
In how long it takes us to believe a compliment.
In the way we sabotage good things,
just to beat the pain to the punch.
And the cruelest trick?
They make us think we’re the only ones.
That everyone else walks through life untouched,
unshaken.
That no one else has a voice inside them
that questions their worth
on the quietest nights.
But if we paused—just for a moment—
and looked a little closer,
we’d see it.
In her smile that trembles at the corners.
In his silence when the room gets loud.
In the way someone clings to their phone
waiting for a text that makes them feel chosen.
We’re all fighting something we don’t say out loud.
So maybe the first step isn’t “fixing” ourselves.
Maybe it’s whispering back—
“You’re scared, and that’s okay.”
“You’ve been hurt, but you’re still here.”
“You’re allowed to take up space, exactly as you are.”
Because the truth is,
we don’t have to wake up perfect.
We don’t have to shine all the time.
But we can wake up real.
And maybe real…
is finally enough.
Raman♥️
