What is one thing you would change about yourself?

I never said I was hurting.
The silence felt safer
than the echo of dismissal.

I learned to fold pain
into small corners of myself,
where no one would trip over it.

When I did speak,
and no one listened,
I mistook their silence
for a verdict.

Maybe I deserved it,
I thought.
Maybe this ache
was mine to carry
because I asked for too much
by asking at all.

But I know now—
pain unspoken
is still real.
And silence
should never be mistaken
for worth.