Never Good Enough
How many more souls do we have to satisfy until we earn the badge of honor to be good enough?
Have you ever felt like you are not good enough?
Have you ever felt like you are only second best to someone else?
Have you ever felt incomplete, not accomplished, somewhat a failure?
What does it even mean, “Never good enough”?
Never good enough for whom?
Is it a doom?
Never good enough by whose measures?
In what ways?
Why always seek praise?
Well, imagine a life never good enough
Imagine spending your whole existence never being good enough
Being defined by others, a passerby, a stranger,
A classmate or a neighbor.
But the worst form of never good enough
Is the one that is imposed by those who you love.
By friends, by family, by lover,
By your father or mother,
By partner or someone who you chose to be your mentor
Those who are supposed to accept you unconditionally
Become the ones to treat you as a ‘beloved’ bully
Paradoxical, isn’t it?!
They define you as never good enough
They treat you as the one who always has to strive
Climb up the stairs they laid out for you,
Meet the standards they set out for you.
As a kid, you take the challenge —
You go up the stairs, reach the top,
You meet all the standards to be on par.
But still you never become good enough.
Those who define those goals,
Will come up with new stairs, new standards, new heights.
And no matter how hard you try,
You always end up being the second best,
Never ever reaching their Everest.
Now would you be surprised if I told you, “That was my life”?!
Still is to some extent
As much as I try to fight
As much as I don’t look back,
Erase the memories,
Change the mindsets,
Beat myself up,
Overflow with emotions like a cup
Full of self-hate, self-deprecation, and exhaustion…
How many more souls do we have to satisfy
Until we earn the badge of honor to be good enough?
Good news is that that life is in the past
I declare myself free at long last
I broke the chains you have placed on me
I found the strength to be free
If you’re reading this and wondering,
“What did it take for you to break free?”
I say, “ACCEPTANCE!”
June 14, 2018
