I’ve been working twice as hard all my life
I was never given the luxury to have things handed to me
I had to grow from my mistakes
To take chances with low probability rates
Tugging on life’s thin compassion
Giving my own advice
and running to nobody but myself
in the middle of the night
Maybe in the end it was all for the better
but I didn’t know any of that back then
That losing out on family,
on love,
on friends,
would eventually lead to the hole in my chest
being mended
It’s strange how strength can be built from
literally nothing
oppose to those who I’ve met who have had everything
My resilience can sometimes be even stronger
As a child I used to wonder if I would amount to anything
Everything I’ve done since then
was to prove myself wrong

Copyright 2023 Valerie Sanchez