12/29/2025
This poem captures something so profound about what it means to be “built for this” - that ability to show up no matter what’s happening around us.
For the child who learned early that they had to be the steady one, the responsible one, the protector.
What strikes me most is that line: “Will she see a problem? Or will she see me?”
That hypervigilance, that constant scanning for whether we’re going to be seen as broken or as capable - it follows so many of us into adulthood.
Some of us channel it into careers as police officers, EMTs, therapists, doctors, or firefighters, becoming the ones others rely on in crisis.
Others turn inward, withdrawing behind screens and isolation when the weight of “showing up” becomes too much.
This poem hits home for me on so many levels because I see this story everywhere - in the EMT who can save lives but struggles to ask for help, in the police officer who protects others but can’t protect themselves from burnout, in the therapist who holds space for everyone else’s pain, in the teen who’s been the family’s emotional caretaker and now can’t connect with peers, in the parent watching their anxious teen withdraw and recognizing their own childhood patterns.
The same resilience that helped us survive can become the very thing that keeps us stuck. When “showing up” becomes our only mode, we lose touch with what we actually need to thrive.
Whether you’re a frontline professional learning to show up FOR yourself, or a parent helping your teen find their way back to connection and belonging - that child who learned to be strong deserves to be seen, to heal, and to discover they’re truly built for so much more than just surviving. 💙
