still got your light

read this if you’re tired but still here

june. men’s mental health awareness. but this isn’t a holiday. it’s a pulse check. it’s for the ones who never speak but feel too much. the ones who keep it together for everyone else but fall apart when the room goes quiet.

this is for you. not the version people see. the real you. the one who’s been carrying more than anyone knows. who shows up, works hard, keeps smiling—even when something inside’s been breaking for a while.

read this slow. your worth is not in your status. not in what you’ve lost. not in how quiet you’ve been about the pain. your worth was never meant to be measured by struggle. you are not a broken thing that needs fixing. you are someone who’s learning how to breathe again. how to feel again. how to live without pretending it’s all okay.

& if you’ve ever felt like you were drowning in your own silence—I’ve felt that too. not for attention. not for sympathy. just truth. i’ve sat in that space where sleep doesn’t help & nothing sounds right. but i made it through. & so will you.

this world won’t always give you space to feel but that doesn’t mean you stop feeling. you don’t have to numb yourself to survive. you don’t have to wear a mask to be loved. you don’t have to keep shrinking to fit what they expect.

you still got your light. even if it’s dim. even if it’s buried. even if you forgot it was there.

you are not behind. you are not too much. you are becoming.

this month, don’t just survive. choose to show up—for you. because when you find your light again the world won’t know what to do with it.

but you will.

-rl.