08/10/2025
Day 5 – ADHD Awareness Month
I Was The One
I was the one
who could never sit still.
Who meant to,
who tried to,
who sometimes still will.
I was the child
with too much to say,
a tangle of thoughts
that ran away.
Mine was the homework
half done, half lost,
the dreamer who learned
what “lazy” cost.
I was the laughter
too loud, too long,
the one who got right
what they marked wrong.
I grew up thinking
I wasn’t enough,
too much of everything,
too different, too rough.
I masked, I mimicked,
I learned how to blend,
to start with the middle
and skip to the end.
I built a career,
I learned to adapt,
but my brain still beats
to a different rap.
Still jumping, still racing,
still bursting with schemes,
still chasing ideas
that light up my dreams.
But I’ve learned, through the noise,
to honour the sound.
To stop wishing for silence,
and stand my ground.
To forgive that child
who was told to behave,
who was punished for passion
Who had to be brave.
Now I know better.
Now I can see.
The fire they scolded
was the best part of me.
So if you’re still trying
to make yourself small,
to fit where you don’t,
to be loved through it all.
Remember this truth
that took me so long:
You were never the problem.
The world got it wrong.
I was the one
who could never sit still.
But I’ve learned that my restlessness
can move mountains,
and will.
Jannine Perryman 2025
