What if you were loved, but never enough?
What if affection always came with conditions so tough?
You watched other children run into an embrace,
While you learned to survive without asking for space.
Was your laughter too loud? Were your feelings too much?
Did you learn to stop reaching for someone’s soft touch?
Did you earn every smile, every word of praise,
By being obedient in a hundred small ways?
And somewhere inside, a question took root:
Am I not lovable, or is love always mute?
You searched for an answer in every new face,
Hoping a stranger would give you that place.
Perhaps you fell hard for the first one who stayed’,
Mistaking attention for promises made.
Perhaps you gave more than you could ever afford,
Just to feel you were someone worth fighting for.
The Sun wanted to shine, to be cherished and seen’,
Saturn stood guard where affection had been.
One cried, “Please notice the person I am!”
The other replied, “Don’t expect more than you can.”
So you learned to perform, to impress, to achieve,
To become someone others would struggle to leave.
But what happens when praise doesn’t quiet the fear?
When a thousand admirers still can’t make love feel near?
What if your achievements are armour you wear,
A glittering shield for the child in despair?
What if you keep asking the world to agree
That you’re worthy of love, that you’re enough to be?
And isn’t it exhausting to audition for care,
To measure your worth by who’s choosing to be there?
To fear that one failure, one flaw on display,
Could make someone who loves you turn and walk away?
But listen! You were never a prize to be won,
Nor a task to complete when your proving was done.
You deserved tenderness before you could shine,
Before you were useful, successful, or fine.
So ask yourself now, when affection feels thin:
Are you seeking their love—or permission to begin?
Will you spend your whole life begging someone to see,
Or dare to believe you’re enough simply being you?
When childhood love left a hole in your heart,
Did you search for its answer in strangers from the start?
Leave a Reply