And Then She Overcame

She was all of nineteen

When her world had come crashing down on her

All of nineteen

Just a girl who was a teen

Her pillar, her support system

What felt like her everything –

The one who had given meaning to her life

Had to move on to a better place

Leaving here behind here

Not alone

But it felt so, so alone

To face everything on her own

To live life in a way she’d never known

She’d thought then that life would end

The world as she had known it, had after all done just that

She had thought that happiness would be a thing of the past

Nothing she loved would ever last

And she would always stay this way – Aghast

But no

She overcame

At first, her laughter was forced

They had sounded so fake in her head

She thought cynical was the best she could do

At first, she smiled for others

She smiled to show them that she would be fine

She smiled to stop the pity in their eyes

She smiled to prove that she could

When she realized that they cared

Her smiles became sadder

For she knew that they knew

They knew that she was trying too hard

She knew that they wanted her to move on

Because they wanted her to be alright

She knew that they were right

And that made her sad

Because a part of her believed

That letting go of the pain,

Would mean that she was letting go of the memories as well

That she would be letting go of who she was

The only who she had known to be

And she would have to accept

The SHE that she would be

It wasn’t easy

It didn’t happen fast

But eventually it did

She let herself smile

Not for others,

But for herself

And before she knew it,

There was laughter

A new her

She had overcome

The sadness

She had overcome

The pain

She had learnt to treasure her memories

To hold on to them dearly

And let them make her a better person

A stronger person

And stronger also because she had overcome

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I wrote this motivated by the "Struggled but Overcame" series contest for CBC