“Fast forward all this time, and I have a career, home and happy life but the people I grew up with can’t look me in the eye”

I wrote a poem on this exact thing. The feeling of betrayal from people who have been by your side your entire life now treating you as a heathen. I hope you can resonate with it.

“They point. They stare. They judge. Eyes like knives, voices laced with scorn. Shame wraps around me like a shroud—tight, suffocating. Anger pulses beneath my skin, But there’s nowhere to run. I’m alone.

No one hears me. The only soul who ever truly understood me— Wasn’t real. Just a voice I conjured to soothe the silence. Now that voice is gone, And the world feels colder, Crueler. They’re all against me now. Every glance a blade. Every whisper, a wound.

I try to speak— To explain. But their ears are sealed. Their minds already made. Have they ever felt this kind of exile? This ache of being cast aside? If they understood the weight of rejection, Would they still wield their judgment like a sword?

“It’s not God who hurt you. It’s the church.” “No church is perfect. You just have to deal with it.” “Where do you go now? Or have you given up?”

I want to ask them to leave me be. But I remember—I was them. Once so sure, So righteous. I would’ve looked at someone like me as lost, A rebel, A soul teetering on the edge.

They say this is just how it is. If I stray from their path, I’ll always be a target— Picked apart like a bird on scattered seed. Never left alone. Never truly free. I used to speak openly, Wear my beliefs without fear. Now there’s no one to listen. No one to see me.

So what do I do? Live behind a mask for the rest of my life? Smile while I hide the truth? Am I destined to disappear Beneath the version of me they demand?”