where I lost myself There was a time I kept showing up for people who barely showed up for me. I gave my time, my energy, my understanding, thinking that if I loved hard enough, things would balance out. I ignored the small signs, the inconsistency, the silence where effort should have been. I told myself not to overreact, not to expect too much, not to make things complicated. But slowly, I started to feel the weight of it all. Not because I was asking for too much, but because I was settling for too little. I was pouring into something that was never pouring back into me. And the more I tried to hold it together, the more I felt myself slipping away.