While listening to a random playlist of music tonight, Ai Higuchi reached through space, time, and my monitor and took ahold of my very soul.
My brain must’ve been tickled by the lyrics that were going in one ear and out the other, because on my second, more careful listen to Instead of me I ended up crying alone at 5:30am in the dark.
"This is me. This is how I’ve felt."
わたしを代わって
ヒグチアイ
Instead of me
Ai Higuchi
きみはそれでいいのよと言われると
こんなんじゃダメって思う
きみはもっとこうしなよ
と言われると
なにがわかるんだって思う
全部本当で全部嘘じゃなくて
今日も変わりたくて
全然変われなくて
ださいださいださい
弱い弱い弱い
今日もダメだったってカレンダーに×をつける日々
つらいつらいつらい
痛い苦しい
でも負けない 見失わない
わたし わたし
明日もこのやる気がさ
待続したら良いのに
起きたら
世界がひっくる帰ってる
明日はできるって思ってた
街中に溢れる
偉い人の言葉を集めたら
カバンの紐がちぎれたよ
「できるかできないかじゃない
やるかやらないなんだ」って
わかってるよ 頭ではね
何冊もの途中で終わってるノート
何枚もの完成されなかったイラスト
何本もの結末の知らない本
何曲のばらばらの歌
眠れなくて薬を飲むよ
度の合わないメガネをかけたみたい
ボヤけた現実、悩みや不安や未来
後回しにしたもので冷蔵庫がいっぱい
ださいださいださい
弱い弱い弱い
今日もダメだったってカレンダーに×をつける日々
つらいつらいつらい
痛い苦しい
目標を立てれば立てるだけ強くなったつもりで
また裏切るたびにもっと自分を嫌いになる
けどみんなわたしのことなんて
どうだってどうなっていいんでしょう
ださいださいださい
弱い弱い弱い
今日もダメだったってカレンダーに×をつける日々
つらいつらいつらい
痛い苦しい
でも負けない 見捨てない
わたしの評価 形 代わり 悲しい
でも 生きてる
わたしの評価 形 代わり 悲しい
でも 生きてる
今日は昨日より一歩前に
今日は昨日より顔を前に
今日は昨日よりつま先を明日に
見捨てない わたし
わたし わたし わたし
Even when you say, "You're okay as you are,"
All I can think is, "This isn't good enough."
Even when you say, "You should be more like this,"
All I can think is, "What could you possibly know?"
It's all true and none of it is a lie
I want to change today too,
and I didn't change at all.
Lame, lame, lame
Weak, weak, weak
Day after day, I mark an X on the calendar
and tell myself, "Today was no good again."
It's hard, so hard, so hard
It hurts, it's suffocating
But I won't lose, I won't lose sight
Of me, of me
If only this motivation continued through until tomorrow
I wake up and the world has flipped upside down
I'd thought that I could do it tomorrow
I gathered up the words of all the important people
who had overflowed all over the city,
and the strap of my bag snapped.
They said, "It's not what you can or can't do,
but whether you will or won't do it."
I know that. In my head, at least
All the notebooks I stopped writing in midway through
All the drawings I could never finish
All the books whose endings I don't know
All of the disjointed pieces of songs
Unable to sleep, I take my pills.
It feels like putting on glasses with the wrong prescription.
Reality becomes blurred with worries, anxieties, the future,
My fridge is filled up with everything I'd put off for later.
Lame, lame, lame
Weak, weak, weak
Day after day, I mark an X on the calendar
and tell myself, "Today was no good again."
It's hard, so hard, so hard
It hurts, it's suffocating
Each goal I set makes me feel stronger,
and every time I betray one, I hate myself a little more.
But no one cares about me anyway,
Whatever becomes of me, it's all the same to them, right?
Lame, lame, lame
Weak, weak, weak
Day after day, I mark an X on the calendar
and tell myself, "Today was no good again."
It's hard, so hard, so hard
It hurts, it's suffocating
But I won't lose. I won't give up on myself.
How I'm judged, the shape I'm forced into, how easily I'm replaced. It's sad.
But I'm alive.
How I'm judged, the shape I'm forced into, how easily I'm replaced. It's sad.
But I'm alive.
Today I'll take one more step forward than yesterday
Today I'll hold my head up higher than yesterday
Today I'll point my toes a little more towards tomorrow than yesterday
I won't give up on myself. Me.
Me. Me. Me.
I’ve struggled so much over my life trying to be good enough for myself, and for the world. There were lots of days it felt impossible, and honestly, days that it still does. For a long, long time, I loathed myself and wanted to die, because it felt like no matter what I did, I could never be good enough to satisfy the world’s expectations of me or my own.
A few years ago, I also decided not to give up on myself. I thought, the only way that I’ll ever be enough for anyone else is if I’m enough for me first. It’s not that everything is perfect now, because I’m still marking days in my calendar every week. However, I wake up every day and give myself grace. I only try as much as I can for that day. Sometimes that’s a little, sometimes that’s a lot, but it’s always enough. I am always enough.
If you’ve had these thoughts too, I hope you can give yourself some grace as well.