Starting over feels like betrayal some days, even when you’re the one who chose it. My sister asked me a question last year that I still haven’t answered out loud. We were standing in my kitchen. Out of nowhere she said, “Do you miss who you used to be?” I said no. Fast. Automatic. The…
The moment you finally decide you’re allowed to want something — you’d think that would feel amazing. It doesn’t. Not at first. If you’ve ever grabbed a permission slip — yours, someone else’s, a printable from the internet — and then done absolutely nothing with it, you are in excellent company. And you’re in exactly…
I want you to do something for me. Think back over the last 24 hours and count how many times you said sorry. Not for anything you actually did wrong. The reflexive ones. The automatic ones. The sorry, can I ask a quick question and the sorry, I just want to say and my personal…
There was a moment not long ago when I sat down to work on this and just stopped, wondering if I should keep going. Closed the laptop. Sat there. And genuinely asked myself: does anyone even care about this? And maybe more honestly — do I have anything left to give it? If you have…
I was closing browser tabs on a Sunday evening — you know the ritual, that slightly anxious tidying before the week begins — when I found it. A registration form. Half filled out. My name and email in the first two fields, and then nothing. The rest of it sitting there, patient and expectant. I…
I had no idea that saying I don’t know is a sign of strength. There was a woman I used to know who always had an answer. Every question that floated across a table, she caught it before it landed. Smooth. Certain. Never a flicker of hesitation. I used to watch her and think: that…
The dress kept getting picked up and put back down. Someone would lift it from the pile of things that had no home — organza over taffeta, delicate ruffles down the back, the fabric still impossibly pristine after nearly 75 years — and for a moment you could almost see her in it. Then reality…
Rediscovering Yourself in the Middle of Everything She’s standing at the kitchen counter at 6:47 in the morning, already running through a list before her coffee is done. Pick up the prescription before work. Call back the discharge coordinator. Reply to the email from her boss that she didn’t get to yesterday. Text her daughter….
The moment you realize you’ve been apologizing for taking up space It took me almost two weeks to bring in the lamp. I’d walk past it in my living room each morning, consider tucking it under my arm, then decide against it. Too much. Too presumptuous. I was new to the office, still learning the…
Finding yourself during holidays feels nearly impossible when everyone needs something from you. There’s this thing that happens where you look up one day and realize you’ve completely disappeared. You’re not physically gone—you’re very much present, cooking and shopping and coordinating and showing up and managing everyone’s expectations and keeping the peace. But the person…
