Before the Name

No one told me
No one showed me
There was a life
Where i could be me

No one told me trans existed
No one told me i could just be me
I was taught i had to fear it
That no one ever got to see

I grew up hiding all my feelings
Afraid of what the world would say
I never knew there was an answer
Or that i could live another way

It was not something mentioned
And yet i knew before a word
A girl i needed to be inside me
But fear kept me from being heard

I spent my childhood feeling different
With questions i could never share
I thought that i was all alone
And nobody out there would care

You never saw the tears i cried
Or all the years i spent inside
A world that told me i was wrong
For being who i was all along

You never knew the girl inside
Or all the years she had to hide
You never saw the pain she knew
Or what that fear had put her through

But now i'm standing here today
And i won't let you turn away
I'm not a shadow of my past
I'm finally living free at last
I'm finally living free at last

You do not get what i went through
You cannot understand my pain
You only base it on so little
When you feel you cannot gain

You judge a life you've never lived
And question things you cannot see
But you don't know the years it took
To finally let myself be me

I never asked to be your enemy
Or someone you should learn to fear
I only wanted to be happy
And live a life without these tears

You do not have to understand
The journey that has brought me here
But you can choose to show compassion
Instead of spreading hate and fear

I was a girl before i knew
That other girls had felt it too
Before i ever knew the name
The girl inside was still the same

And all the years that i had lost
Can never tell the final cost
But i will live the life i choose
And not let hatred make me lose

So listen to what others say
Before you turn their hearts away
We all have stories left untold
And pain that others never hold

We're all just human after all
We all can hurt, we all can fall
We never meant to be apart
So let compassion lead your heart

No one told me trans existed
But i knew who i had to be
And now the girl who lived in silence
Has finally found her way to be free