The Silence That Hurt More

I used to think time would heal it all. That one day the weight of what happened would lift, and I’d forget the sting of it. But silence has a way of staying loud in your heart. The people who hurt me never offered an apology. Instead, they watched me fall apart and made me feel guilty for bleeding. Nobody apologized for how they treated me; they just blamed me for how I reacted.

It’s a strange kind of pain: being misunderstood, misjudged, and then punished for trying to stand up for yourself. You start to wonder if maybe you were too much. Too angry. Too emotional. You replay it all, hoping to find the part where it was your fault. But deep down, you know. You know that kindness should never be repaid with cruelty, and love should not be met with silence.

Healing has been lonely. Not because I’m alone, but because so few people want to talk about the parts where they failed you. They want peace without responsibility. But I’ve learned to give myself what they couldn’t: closure, kindness, and truth. I’m still here, still growing. And maybe that’s enough. Maybe surviving with my softness intact is the loudest victory of all.

-Oluwademilade from MANI