Choices

Verse 1 I learned to carry heartache Like a shadow on my skin, Every year another fracture, Another place the hurt got in. I forgot the sound of laughter, Forgot what safe could be, Till pain became the only thing I thought belonged to me. Pre-Chorus Trauma gave me choices No one should have to make, Stay and lose another piece, Or run and face the ache. I kept choosing survival, One breath, one night, one day, Until somewhere underneath it all A voice began to say— Chorus Choose yourself, Even if your hands still shake, Choose yourself, Even if your heart might break. You are not what happened, You are not what they took, You are more than every scar That pain ever left behind. So step into the sunshine, Let the morning find your face, You don't have to earn your life, You don't have to earn your place. For the first time in forever, I'm choosing someone worth saving— And that someone is me. Verse 2 I spent so many years believing I was somehow less, That love was something I deserved Only when I gave my best. I confused surviving With being strong enough, And called myself unworthy When the world had been so rough. Pre-Chorus There were nights I questioned If I'd ever make it through, If there was anything remaining Of the person I once knew. But beneath the broken pieces, Something stubborn still remained— A tiny spark that whispered, "You don't have to live this way." Chorus Choose yourself, Even if your hands still shake, Choose yourself, Even if your heart might break. You are not what happened, You are not what they took, You are more than every scar That pain ever left behind. So step into the sunshine, Let the morning find your face, You don't have to earn your life, You don't have to earn your place. For the first time in forever, I'm choosing someone worth saving— And that someone is me. Bridge I can't change the years behind me, Can't unfeel the things I've known, Can't rebuild the girl I was Before she learned to disappear. But I can hold her gently, I can tell her she was brave, I can promise from this moment I won't abandon her again. No more choosing what destroys me Just because it's what I know, No more calling pain my home When there's somewhere else to go. I'll take one trembling heartbeat, Then another after that, And I'll walk beyond the darkness Without looking back. Final Chorus I choose myself, Even with these broken wings, I choose myself, And all the life tomorrow brings. I am not what happened, I am not what they took, I am every breath I fought for, Every step they couldn't stop. And I'll step into the sunshine, Even if I have to cry, I'll let the warmth remind me I was always meant to survive. After all these years of hurting, After everything I've been through, I don't need to be unbroken— I just need to choose. Outro So here I am, still breathing, With the scars I can't erase. The darkness may have shaped me, But it doesn't own my name. And for the first time, I can finally see— The life I've been searching for Was waiting inside me.