This Is What They Don't Get

They looked at me and said,
"Don't you feel lonely, living in your own little world all the time?"

And I didn't answer right away.

Because it's not a little world to me. It's the only one where I can actually breathe.
Where I don't have to explain myself or shrink just to be tolerated and where I can think without being corrected, rest without being judged, exist without always performing for someone else's comfort.

So l looked back and said,

"You mean the world where people pretend all day, where you say you're fine when you're not, where everything depends on being liked, accepted, approved?

You think I should trade peace for that?
I don't feel lonely in here.
I feel safe.

But maybe that's the part you don't understand, because you've spent so long adjusting yourself for everyone else, you forgot what it's like to just be."