There was a boy not someone you'd notice in a crowd, not the loudest or the brightest, but someone who carried a quiet storm within. Life had not been kind to him. His body, frail and often fatigued, refused to match the strength of his spirit. While others ran freely, chased dreams, and conquered milestones, he often stood still not by choice, but because his body gave up before his heart did.
His dreams were loud though. He wanted to be something, someone. He poured himself into books, worked late nights, tried, failed, tried again… and failed harder. Opportunities never knocked. And even when they did, they left before he could open the door. One rejection after another chipped away at his confidence until he stopped introducing himself as someone with ambition. His career became a shadow of what he once hoped for and in that shadow, he began to disappear.
But the cruelest blow wasn’t the pain in his bones or the loss of purpose it was the betrayal of the one person he thought would stand by him. Love his only safe place turned into another battlefield. She left. No explanations that made sense. Just silence. Just distance. She moved on like he was a forgotten page in a story she didn’t want to read anymore. And he, already fragile, cracked a little more.
He began to question everything his worth, his choices, even his existence. Not out loud, never out loud. He smiled in photos, typed “I’m fine” too many times, and laughed when he needed to cry. He became a master at pretending, because he knew people got tired of broken stories. So he stayed quiet. Fought his demons in the dark. And every morning, he got up not out of strength, but out of habit.
If you ever meet someone who looks like they’re holding it together but flinch when no one’s looking, please be kind. Some boys break quietly. And not every pain is loud.
Marcello
His dreams were loud though. He wanted to be something, someone. He poured himself into books, worked late nights, tried, failed, tried again… and failed harder. Opportunities never knocked. And even when they did, they left before he could open the door. One rejection after another chipped away at his confidence until he stopped introducing himself as someone with ambition. His career became a shadow of what he once hoped for and in that shadow, he began to disappear.
But the cruelest blow wasn’t the pain in his bones or the loss of purpose it was the betrayal of the one person he thought would stand by him. Love his only safe place turned into another battlefield. She left. No explanations that made sense. Just silence. Just distance. She moved on like he was a forgotten page in a story she didn’t want to read anymore. And he, already fragile, cracked a little more.
He began to question everything his worth, his choices, even his existence. Not out loud, never out loud. He smiled in photos, typed “I’m fine” too many times, and laughed when he needed to cry. He became a master at pretending, because he knew people got tired of broken stories. So he stayed quiet. Fought his demons in the dark. And every morning, he got up not out of strength, but out of habit.
If you ever meet someone who looks like they’re holding it together but flinch when no one’s looking, please be kind. Some boys break quietly. And not every pain is loud.
Marcello