This Is the Year I Came Back to Myself

This year didn’t arrive gently.
It arrived asking questions I couldn’t avoid anymore.

Who am I now?
Who am I becoming?
And what kind of life am I modeling for my children—not just with my words, but with how I choose myself?

This year was not about perfection.
It was about reclamation.

I spent a long time surviving. Functioning. Carrying. Enduring.
Doing what I had to do because there were tiny hands holding onto me and a heart that refused to quit, even when it was exhausted.

But survival is not the same thing as living. And this year, something shifted.

What I’ve Overcome (and What I’m Still Honoring)

This year asked me to face the parts of my story I had learned to minimize just to keep going.

Grief that didn’t follow a timeline.
Trauma that lived in my nervous system, not just my memories.
Burnout disguised as “strength.”
Patterns I inherited, tolerated, or learned because I didn’t yet know I could choose differently.

I learned that healing is not linear—and it’s not quiet.

Sometimes it looks like boundaries that make people uncomfortable.
Sometimes it looks like rest without apology.
Sometimes it looks like admitting that what once felt like love was actually survival.

I stopped abandoning myself to keep the peace.
I stopped shrinking to be digestible.
I stopped explaining my needs as if they were flaws.

And no—this didn’t make life easier.
It made it truer.

Who I Am Now

I am a woman who listens to her body.
A mother who models emotional honesty, not emotional perfection.
A human who believes that softness and strength can exist in the same breath.

I am learning to trust joy again—not as something to brace for losing, but as something I’m allowed to keep.

I am married to someone who holds space instead of demanding silence.
Someone who meets my healing with patience, not pressure.
Someone who understands that love is not proven by endurance—but by presence.

And I am still learning.
Still unraveling.
Still becoming.

Who I’m Becoming—for My Children and for Me

For my children, I am becoming a mother who shows them:

That feelings are not dangerous
That boundaries are an act of love
That rest is not laziness
That choosing yourself does not mean abandoning others

I want them to grow up knowing that healing is brave.
That asking for help is wise.
That they never have to earn love by being smaller.

For myself, I am becoming someone who no longer waits for permission.

I am choosing authenticity over approval.
Alignment over exhaustion.
Truth over familiarity.

I am building a life that feels safe inside my body—not just impressive from the outside.

Going Forward

This next season is not about proving anything.

It’s about living loudly in my truth.
Speaking even when my voice shakes.
Creating space for others to heal out loud too.

It’s about choosing joy without guilt.
Love without fear.
And a future rooted in intention, not survival.

I don’t know everything yet.

But I know this:

I am not who I was.
I honor who she had to be.
And I am deeply proud of who I am becoming.

This is not the end of the story.

This is the chapter where I finally come home to myself.