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14 Jul 2025 1 min read poetry

Who they wanted me to be

A short poem on untangling the stories people hand us about ourselves
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Jenny Smith

An excerpt from There She Is: Love Notes on Finding Home.


it’s hard to love me
until i wrestle
with all the stories
they handed me
about me

otherwise
i’m just loving
who they wanted
me to be

man in black suit jacket raising his right hand
Photo by Rishabh Dharmani / Unsplash

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