“The truth will set you free, but first it will piss you off.” – Gloria Steinem
My Interpretation: I used to think the truth was a gift. Now I know – it is a pry bar. It does not
ask for permission. It just rips things open. & sometimes, what spills out is the quietest betrayal:
I knew better. I just did not want to believe it

---

Series 1 – Part 1

They always tell you to see the good in people.

They call it grace.

They tell you to be understanding.  

Be patient.  

Assume the best.

But what they do not say is –

empathy has a cliff edge.

& if you keep stepping forward without looking down,

eventually,

you fall.

 

& I did.

Over.

&

Over.

& Over Again.

So many times, I lost count.

 

But every time I hit bottom, I still managed to say:

“Maybe they did not mean it.

Maybe it is not that bad.

Maybe it is me.”

 

But it was not me.

& they did mean it.

Or worse –

they did not care enough to mean anything at all.

---

I used to think being loyal meant riding it out.

Now I know it just meant I was the last to leave a burning house.

 

Every time I forgave someone who had not asked,

Every time I softened the blow for someone who did not flinch when they hit me,

I was building a shrine to someone else’s comfort.

& I was kneeling at it, bleeding.

---

There is a moment –

quiet, almost unremarkable –

when you realize that doubting yourself has become your default.

That you trust other’s intentions more than your own instincts.

That you are looking for smoke while you are already choking.

 

That is what giving the benefit of the doubt did to me.

I handed it out like candy on Halloween –

sweet,

wrapped in the hope

that maybe this time,

it would not rot me from the inside.

 

But here is what they do not tell you:

 

The benefit of the doubt becomes a weapon when you keep handing it to people who are already holding a knife.

 

& all it did –

was make me doubt myself first.

---

So I stopped.

Not dramatically.

Not all at once.

But slowly.

Like detox.

Like withdrawal.

 

I stopped explaining why I left.

I stopped auditioning for people to treat me kindly.

I stopped watering relationships that only bloomed in drought.

 

& when people called me harsh, cold, too quick to cut ties?

 

I said:

“You are confusing my boundaries with bitterness.

But I know the difference.

Because I lived it.”

---

Sometimes survival does not look like a battle cry.

It looks like not responding to the text.

It looks like canceling the appointment.

It looks like not defending yourself when they misrepresent you.

Because you do not need to be right.

You just need to be free.

 

& if that freedom costs me people who only loved the version of me that kept quiet?

 

I will pay it in full.

Every. Damn. Time.

 

Xoxo ♡