Where I Learned to Stay

I learned to walk alone in crowded rooms
Holding my name like something fragile
I wore my silence like a tailored suit
So love wouldn't ask too much

I traced my doubts along the walls
Of nights that felt too honest
I was scared to be desired
Exactly as I am

I stopped waiting for permission
To feel this deep, this true
I stopped editing my heartbeat
Just to be easier to love

This is where I learned to stay
In my skin, in my light
I don't hide my tenderness
I let it breathe tonight

If loving me is how it starts
Then love won't run away
I stopped chasing borrowed hearts
This is where I learned to stay

(Ooh, I stayed)
(Ooh, I stayed)

I've loved through coded glances
Through doors half-open wide
But every scar became a sentence
Where my truth learned how to write

I don't need perfect timing
I just need something real
A love that sees my history
And stays for how I feel

I don't shrink inside affection
I don't soften who I am
If love arrives with conditions
I gently let it pass

This is where I learned to stay
In my voice, in my name
I don't fold my colors down
To fit inside the frame

If loving me is how it starts
Then love won't fade away
I stopped surviving lonely hearts
This is where I learned to stay

I am not broken
I am becoming
I arrived late
Because I was learning

This is where I learned to stay
In my truth, unafraid
I don't beg to be chosen
I choose myself today

If loving me is how it starts
Then love will find its way
I stopped asking to be enough
This is where I learned to stay

This is where I learned to stay
In my truth, unafraid
I don't beg to be chosen
I choose myself today

If loving me is how it starts
Then love will find its way
I stopped asking to be enough
This is where I learned to stay

This is where I learned to stay
In my truth, unafraid
I don't beg to be chosen
I choose myself today

If loving me is how it starts
Then love will find its way
I stopped asking to be enough
This is where I learned to stay

(I learned to stay)
(And love stayed too)