The journey isn’t easy, but it’s yours alone to walk. And if you can find a way to honor, and celebrate, each and every step on the path, regardless of whether anyone else does, you will discover a resounding sense of acceptance, belonging, and confidence within yourself. You’ll realize it was only ever about creating a life that feels good to you.

The journey isn’t easy, but it’s yours alone to walk. And if you can find a way to honor, and celebrate, each and every step on the path, regardless of whether anyone else does, you will discover a resounding sense of acceptance, belonging, and confidence within yourself. You’ll realize it was only ever about creating a life that feels good to you.

Back around the start of the new year in 2019, I created social media platforms in hopes of having a place to share my poetry until I could self-publish. Not even months later, I deleted all of it. I was full of doubt. I was scared, unsure, and to be completely transparent, embarrassed. I had allowed the fear of what others may have thought of me or my art or my poems to shake my confidence in a dream I had wanted to chase since I was a little girl. Questions like “What if it's not good enough? Why me? Who would want to hear my words? Who could I move?” kept flooding my mind.

2020 was a year that saw a shift in mindset and purpose and communication mental wellness, health, spirituality, and self love become priority, light in the darkest corners and hope in the hardest moments and love, a whole lotta love.

A year later, and I still couldn’t be more thankful for my worst year yet. This post, and all of the self reflection that sparked it, fueled necessary and beautiful changes within me. Last New Year, my resolution was that I wanted to grow like I never had before, and in 2018 I did just that.

And while some days, this is still feels like the case, most days I feel more strength, healing, peace, self love, and forgiveness than I ever imagined possible. Healing can be painful. Healing is a process. Healing can sometimes feel endless. Healing can be difficult. Not every day is easy, and if fact, most days aren’t. But healing is beautiful, healing is possible, and healing will come.

I want to talk about what was probably the first of my defining moments. I want to talk about love within community. I want to talk about the strength found in safe spaces and the power found in sharing our stories. I want to talk about sex. More specifically, I want to talk about sexual violence.

And since that night, I’ve been learning to prioritize rest. I’ve been learning to take days for myself. To know that my friends and family will love me, even if I say no. That I will love myself even if I say no. That my worth is not defined just by my productivity. That there is joy to be found in the quiet moments, the still moments, the restful moments.

In reality, I knew exactly what I wanted to do. All I wanted was to go to sleep at 9pm and wake up feeling refreshed that what I considered to be the most difficult year of my life to date would finally be over. This morning as I left my bedroom to start a day I had been anxiously awaiting to end, I felt overwhelmed by the sight of these six words. “It is well with my soul”. When I read these words this morning, I was reminded of something I lost sight of this year.