All powerlessness is just a pretense. Even in your feeblest moment, you are still powerful enough to exercise choice, and you must always hold this very close to your heart.
The world can take anything, everything away from you, but nothing and nobody ever can take away from you your power to choose. That right has not been given to you by man; therefore, man cannot deprive you of that right. It’s an existential right, the right to choose.
Now, what you do with that right is your fate. You may exercise that right in a way that life blossoms, or you could use your right to choose in a way that devastates you.