#filk #ukulele #guitar

I was small, I was quiet I stayed out of the fight I learned how to disappear When the room got too loud at night But I found a battered paperback With a cracked and broken spine Full of people who were terrified And still crossed the line

I didn’t find it in a mirror Or handed down from home It wasn’t written in my shadow Or etched into my bones I found it in a dog-eared page A borrowed, battered spine In someone else’s desperate choice That somehow echoed mine

When they stood though they were shaking When they spoke though they were small When they walked into the darkness With no guarantee at all

I learned how to be brave from fiction From heroes who were scared like me From broken worlds still worth the saving From fights no one could win for free They showed me fear is not the ending Just something you go through I learned how to be brave from fiction Before I ever knew

They ran when the odds were hopeless They stood when the cost was high They failed, they bled, they lost their way They still got back up and tried No prophecy, no destiny No voice that said “you must” Just one more step into the dark Because it mattered — it was just

A starship captain losing engines Still turning toward the flame A farm kid staring down a tyrant Before they knew their name A witch who chose the harder mercy A thief who chose to stay It's not that they were not afraid They won by going anyway

I learned how to be brave from fiction From heroes who were scared like me From broken worlds still worth the saving From fights no one could win for free They showed me fear is not the ending Just something you go through I learned how to be brave from fiction Before I ever knew

I watched them choose the harder path When no one would have known I learned that “right” is sometimes quiet And often done alone I learned that strength can look like kindness And courage like delay That saving worlds starts small and human And sometimes walks away

It felt like lying the first few times Like wearing someone else’s skin Like quoting lines, I half-remembered Hoping courage might set in But stories are rehearsal rooms And hearts can learn the part Till the make-believe we borrowed Leaves fingerprints on our hearts

They didn’t promise happy endings They promised I could try They taught me how to keep my feet When everything said fly They never said I’d win the fight Or even understand Just that I’d know the moment When it was time to take a stand

I learned how to be brave from fiction From paper shields and laser swords From magic rings and quiet martyrs From whispered vows and shouted words And when the moment came in daylight No soundtrack, no swelling strings I heard a voice I knew by memory say: “Be the kind of hero stories sing.”

So, if I stand when I am frightened If I speak though my voice shakes If I reach out when it is hardest It’s because of all it takes All the worlds that lit the darkness All the lives I carried through I learned how to be brave from fiction And maybe… you can too.