Transcript
Words from the video
My story did not start
Where childhood should have been
It started in the silence
I was learning to live in
I learned to read the room
Before I knew my name
Learned when to disappear
Learned how to carry shame
Some nights still echo
Like footsteps in the hall
And I still feel smaller
When old memories call
But I am looking back now
With gentler eyes
The child I used to be
Was only trying to survive
This is where my story begins
Not where the pain gets to end it
I was shaped by what I lived through
But I am more than what it did
I carried fear
I carried silence
I carried things too heavy then
But I am learning
I am healing
This is where my story begins
I was not taught kindness
In the way a child should be
But I learned what hurt can do
And chose who I would never be
Where there was hunger
I learned to give
Where there was absence
I learned to stay
Where there was cold
I kept a fire
Small enough to guard
But strong enough to save
I do not blame the boy
Who learned to hide his heart
He was building shelter
With broken, borrowed parts
This is where my story begins
Not where the pain gets to end it
I was shaped by what I lived through
But I am more than what it did
I carried fear
I carried silence
I carried things too heavy then
But I am learning
I am healing
This is where my story begins
Survival was my first language
Before I knew how to speak
I called it being strong
When I was only trying not to break
Now I am learning softness
Does not make me weak
And the past can explain me
Without owning every piece
This is where my story begins
Not where the hurt gets the final word
Not where the child I was disappears
Not where his voice goes unheard
I carried fear
I carried silence
But I carried tenderness too
And all the parts I thought were broken
Are learning how to move
This is where my story begins
Where understanding lets me breathe again
I was hurt
I survived
I adapted
I became
I am still becoming
Still learning how to live
The past is part of my story
But it is not all of it