[Verse 1]
She feels everything before the words arrive,
A current running deep beneath the way she moves through life,
They see the calm, the steady ground, the practical facade,
They don't see the ocean underneath, the tides she guards,
Her mind runs like a river, splits and doubles back,
But every winding thought she thinks is finding something back

[PreChorus]
She's built her worth with quiet hands, not looking for applause,
Still wondering if she's enough — she always, always was

[Chorus]
Gretchen, you were written in the water and the light,
Every contradiction in you beautiful and right,
You don't have to prove the depth of everything you feel,
Gretchen, you are whole, you are worthy, you are real

[Verse 2]
She loves like someone striking flame against the cold,
First one in the room to give, first one to carry what's untold,
There's a hunger underneath for something true and raw,
She won't settle for the surface when she knows there's so much more,
She's rebuilt homes from rubble, roots from borrowed ground,
Made a life worth living from the things she thought she'd found

[PreChorus]
The way she holds her people is a force they'll never name,
And everything she's walked through only sharpened her, not tamed

[Chorus]
Gretchen, you were written in the water and the light,
Every contradiction in you beautiful and right,
You don't have to prove the depth of everything you feel,
Gretchen, you are whole, you are worthy, you are real

[Verse 3]
She's carried other people's storms like they were hers to bear,
Gave her voice away in rooms that didn't know how to care,
But the words inside her matter, every image, every dream,
She speaks in something deeper than it's ever going to seem,
The world is getting brighter now, the season turning gold,
She's not starting over — she's arriving in her own

[PreChorus]
There's a compass in her chest that points through every doubt,
And the light that's coming in now has no reason to go out

[Chorus]
Gretchen, you were written in the water and the light,
Every contradiction in you beautiful and right,
You don't have to prove the depth of everything you feel,
Gretchen, you are whole, you are worthy, you are real

[Bridge]
Let the wave come, let it carry what it needs to take,
Every ending she has known became the life she gets to make,
The stars laid down a blueprint long before she had to try,
She was always meant to flourish — she just needed time

[Outro]
You were mapped before the morning, every version loved and known,
Gretchen, you were never lost — you were always coming home