And Lastly, It Taught Me.

And lastly, it taught me

to love myself from the inside out.

Friends and family may come and go,

like seasons that do not ask permission

before they change.

But I remain.

At the end of every unraveling,

every departure,

every silence that overstays its welcome—

I am still here.

So I owe it to myself to become sanctuary.

To speak gently where I was once cruel.

To forgive myself for not knowing

what I could not have known.

To hold my own hand

when no one else reaches for it.

Because self-love is not indulgence—

it is survival reimagined as devotion.

And if I am to be the only constant in my life,

then I choose to be one

worth staying for.