A Note, For When I'm Not Here Poem by cassidy Lovato

If I am not here,
please don't wonder what I would have wanted.
That question carries too much weight
for anyone left behind to hold.

I would not want your life
to pause at the edge of my absence.
I would not want my memory
to become a rulebook
or a measuring stick for your choices.

I would want you to live.
Not carefully.
Not apologetically.
But fully—
with laughter that surprises you,
with mistakes that teach you,
with love that changes shape as you grow.

If you're looking for my voice,
listen to your own.
It was always enough.

If you're looking for my approval,
know this:
I never needed you to become anything
other than who you already are.

You don't have to carry me forward
in the way you live.
I am already with you
in the parts of yourself
you didn't even realize I helped build.

So when others ask what I would have said,
or who I would have wanted you to be—
you don't have to answer.

The truth is simpler than that.
I trusted you.
Then.
Now.
Always.