There is no hunger in my soul, no void in my lineage, no ancestral calling that says

There is no hunger in my soul, no void in my lineage, no ancestral calling that says, “yes, child, bear the company of those who drain your spirit, dim your fire, or mistake your silence for weakness.” I was not born to entertain hollow noise — I was born of storms, of spine, of sacred defiance. I would rather walk alone than rub shoulders with people of no core at all — for solitude is far more fulfilling than the presence of the hollow.

— Sadia Hakim