“The version of you someone created in their mind is not your responsibility to maintain.” — wethinkdeeply
Nor is it something you need to accept because often, people will treat you based on the version of you they’ve decided to hold onto—not who you actually are.
I’ve learned this more in the last six months than ever before. And I’ve learned it from the people who call me family.
It’s a painful realisation when those closest to you refuse to acknowledge your growth, changes, or even your current reality. They interact with a ghost of who you used to be, or worse, a distorted image they’ve constructed to fit their own narrative.
The hardest part isn’t their misconception—it’s recognising that you cannot argue someone out of a version of you that serves their purposes.
You cannot logic your way into being seen clearly by someone who benefits from seeing you through a particular lens.
What you can do is refuse to shrink back into the box they’ve built for you. You can choose to live as your authentic self, even when it makes others uncomfortable with the gap between their perception and your reality.
This is both liberation and grief: freeing yourself from others’ limited vision while mourning the relationships that cannot survive your refusal to play the role they’ve assigned you.
