Built In The Dark

[Verse 1]
Nobody was watching when they were building me
Nobody could witness what the darkness was giving me
I thought I was losing — I was being designed
Thought I was behind — really just ahead of my time
Every late night felt like I was going nowhere fast
Didn't know the silence was the foundry and I was the cast
Blueprints getting drawn in rooms I couldn't even see
Pain was just the pressure forming diamonds out of me
I was crying in the dark but my frame was getting stronger
Every day I felt forgotten made the roots go a little longer
They don't build the great ones in the spotlight — nah, that's the myth
They forge them in the fire, in the quiet, in the abyss
[Chorus]
I was built in the dark
Built in the dark
Couldn't see the masterpiece but it was forming from the start
Built in the dark
Built in the dark
Every scar became a blueprint, every wound became a spark
You don't build what I became in the light
This kind of gold only comes from the night
Built in the dark
Built in the dark
And everything the darkness made is everything I are

[Verse 2]
I remember questioning the seasons — why so long?
Didn't know the longer that it takes, the more you belong
To something bigger than the version that you prayed to save
The dark was buying time to give the fire what it craved
Every dot I couldn't connect was still a dot being placed
Every prayer that went unanswered was a wall being raised
Foundation first — you can't rush what has to hold the weight
Of everything the vision needs, they build it in the wait
Look at every founder, every legend, every name
They all got built in private before the world knew their name
The workshop isn't glamorous, it isn't lit with gold
But everything you'll stand on was assembled in the cold
[Chorus]
I was built in the dark
Built in the dark
Couldn't see the masterpiece but it was forming from the start
Built in the dark
Built in the dark
Every scar became a blueprint, every wound became a spark
You don't build what I became in the light
This kind of gold only comes from the night
Built in the dark
Built in the dark
And everything the darkness made is everything I are

[Bridge]
Don't pity the person in the valley —
They're not stuck, they're being made
Don't mourn the years that felt like nothing —
Nothing was still being laid
The roots of the tallest trees
Go down before they go up
The strongest steel got poured in the dark
Before it ever got cut
I see it now —
The dark was the architect all along
I see it now —
Every hard year was another course of stone
I see it now —
The foundation is indestructible
Because they built it in the dark
Because they built it in the dark

[Outro]
Built in the dark — unbreakable
Built in the dark — unmistakable
Every piece assembled when no one could see
Is the reason now the light can't shake what I be
I didn't survive the dark —
I was made there
I didn't endure the dark —
I was shaped there
Built in the dark
Built in the dark
And I wouldn't trade a single night
Not a single night...