Worth

She stared at the bottle in front of her

The amber liquid tempting, but not yet winning her over

It was not a good evening

But so many weren’t, had never really been

No one saw that in her, no one noticed

As she slowly fell apart, piece by piece

Drowning herself in the bottle that she didn’t want to touch

But it sat there, tempting her, begging her to take off the lid

It’s terrible to grow up wanting

Wanting praise, love, approval for every action

Doing every single thing to please someone else

But never being told you’ve accomplished anything

Yet you’re still expected to do well

Succeed, work hard, be accomplished, excel

They don’t see the effort, the strain, the hours put in

They don’t see her slowly breaking down

It’s a terrible thing to be uncertain

To never know if you are pretty

To never know if you are smart

Brave, caring, ambitious, daring

Because no one has ever told you so

No one has looked at you with anything other than expectations

No one has said they are proud of all you have done

Everyone has ignored her

It’s a terrible thing to stare at your reflection

Wondering if you will ever be good enough

To meet the standards that you have set

To please yourself, to please someone else

See the signs of fatigue, stress, anxiety clearly

But know that you can’t give up

She is not allowed to give up

She looked at the bottle again

Not tonight, she had too much to do

But she wouldn’t turn it down for them

She would do it for herself

Because no matter what they didn’t say about her

She knew that she mattered

She knew that she was important

And one day she would prove it