“Bring Back Age of Belonging”
By Afzal Ahamed Malik
You try to blend into circles
that make you feel small,
just to avoid the echo of loneliness.
You sit at tables
where your silence is more welcome than your truth,
where being present doesn’t mean being seen.
In the absence of true connection,
you begin to settle.
For half-hearted friendships.
For conditional love.
For families that only accept the version of you
they can control or correct.
You shrink.
Not because you want to,
but because survival demands it.
You laugh at jokes that hurt.
You stay in rooms that drain you.
You keep quiet when your soul screams to speak.
All because solitude
— though honest — feels too heavy to carry alone.
But the cost?
Your peace.
Your voice.
Your self.
You weren’t made to be tolerated.
You were meant to be treasured.
So don’t shrink to fit spaces that shame your fullness.
Don’t silence your truth to feel included.
You deserve a tribe,
not an audience.
A place where you don’t have to perform
to belong.