“
They asked you to apologize
for who you are,
so I told you:
who you are is how you survive,
and how you survive is how you live.
and we don’t apologize for survival.
Don’t apologize for that day
you couldn’t get out of bed.
too exhausted to even function,
they told you to stop being lazy
and get your life together
so I told you
there’s a type of exhaustion
that no amount of sleep can ever fix
exhaustion that comes from
thoughts that suffocate
and problems you can’t even control,
so you curled up and stayed in bed
because this is how you’ll survive the day
and we don’t apologize for survival.
Don’t apologize when you stopped caring
for that person who was too blind too see it
who took all that you gave
and never did the same,
they told you to stop being
so heartless
so I told you,
the heartless person once cared too much
and when you care
you give everything you have
and there’s only so much you can give,
until you don’t have anything left
to give to the ones that deserve it better.
So you stopped caring and
they called you heartless,
but this is the kind of heartless you become to survive
and we don’t apologize for survival.
Don’t apologize for the time
you shut off your phone
too tired to reply
to problems that never end
and to people that betray you
the second you blink
they told you what happened
to friendships you chose to have
and promises to always be there
so I told you
there are people who only
acknowledge your existence when
you’re needed,
and people who suffocate you
with negativity that just grows ,
so you shut off your phone and
decided to breathe because this is how you’ll survive
and we don’t apologize for survival.
Don’t apologize for the moment
you shut down because you’re too sad
the sad that fills every empty part of you
and drowns you before you get the chance to swim,
they told you to get up and get over it
for there are bigger problem and
bigger tragedies,
and some things things just don’t deserve
that kind of sadness.
So I told you,
one problem can never be compared to another
you’re allowed to be just as sad
as you want to be
for there’s a kind of sad that can never
be explained in words
and that’s okay.
So you shut down and
let out the sadness in you to survive
and we don’t apologize for survival.
Don’t apologize for not being able to work
just as much as someone else,
and you hate yourself for not
achieving just as much,
thinking you haven’t given your all
when you have.
They told you to stop being so weak
and try harder
so I told you,
your best will always be different
from their best
and your abilities will never be
their abilities.
and when your all isn’t enough for something
then it probably isn’t meant for you.
So you work at your own pace and
stop pushing yourself beyond capacity to survive
and we don’t apologize for survival.
Don’t apologize for times you decide
to turn everything around and change plans
for actions you take that lead you down
all the different roads,
they told you to start being responsible
and having set goals and plans
for that is how success is achieved
so I told you,
we live to see where life will take us
and we live not to follow
but to create
and endlessly re create over and over.
So when things don’t go
according to plan
or when you start over with something else
that is not called failure
but success at its own definitions
and its own pace
so you plan and build your own success
to live and survive,
and we don’t apologize for survival.
But you look back
and replay everything they say
over and over anyway,
and you think there’s no way
the mess of who you are
has the ability to survive like this
but you don’t even realize
that is what you’ve been doing
the entire time,
you’ve been surviving
and we don’t apologize for survival.