Am I a Burden, or Just Too Easy to Ignore?

I don’t know when it started, but somewhere along the way, I became the person who feels everything.Everyone’s sadness.Everyone’s anger. Everyone’s silent breakdowns.If someone around me is hurting, it crawls into my chest like it belongs there. I listen. I stay. I apologize, even when I don’t know what I’m apologizing for. I say sorry a hundred times. A thousand times. Just in case I caused even a crack in their world.And yet somehow, I’m still invisible.

I keep wondering,

Am I a shit person?

Am I a burden?

Is my existence just inconvenient ?

Because the truth is, when I’m the one who’s hurting, it doesn’t matter.My pain is always “too much” or “not the right time.” I’m expected to understand. To adjust. To swallow it down like I always do.

Funny thing is, the moment I stop doing that,the moment I pull back, get quiet, protect myself,they say I’ve changed.

As if I don’t have the right to.Apparently, I don’t have the right to be upset.I don’t have the right to be tired.I don’t have the right to say, “This hurts me too.”They loved me when I was endlessly patient.They loved me when I was convenient.They loved me when I absorbed everything and asked for nothing.

But the second I act differently, the second I choose myself even a little, I become the problem.And that messes with your head.It makes you question your value.It makes you apologize for existing.It makes you feel guilty for having emotions in the first place.

But here’s something I’m slowly learning,even if it still hurts to say it out loud,

Feeling deeply does not make me weak.Caring does not make me a burden.Setting boundaries does not make me cruel.Maybe I was never too much.Maybe I was just giving too much to people who never learned how to hold it.

I’m tired of shrinking so others stay comfortable.I’m tired of saying sorry when what I really need is understanding.I’m tired of being strong for everyone except myself.I don’t want to disappear.

I just want to be seen,without having to bleed for it