Stop waiting for the world to tell you you’re enough.

I was. And I know I’m not the only one. Actually, I spent a lot of my time feeling like I wasn’t worth much at all.

I searched for myself in all the wrong places. A chameleon, I mirrored others hoping that something would start to feel normal and natural eventually. I lost myself in boys who didn’t treat me nicely, hoping they’d give me purpose. I alienated friends once we started to get close, worried my cover would get blown. They’d see I was a fraud, it was all an act. It’s embarrassing to admit, but I had no idea who I was. At all.

I did things because they were expected or seemed normal. I existed. Though loud and chatty, my voice was often left unheard, discounted, dismissed. After a while, I just stopped trying. Wouldn’t you?

I didn’t feel like a person. I felt like a discounted version of a human, a knock off that people tolerated but ultimately passed over for the real thing. And I thought that was all there was.

Learn this from my mistakes: don’t let someone ever take away your voice. If they aren’t hearing you, they aren’t your people. If they make you feel like less than a person, they aren’t your people. If you feel lost, scared, empty, pointless, directionless, purposeless, let me be your people.


There’s a peaceful shift when you start to come into yourself. For some it comes easily. They’ve had encouraging words in their ears their whole lives, people in their corner. For others, they have to shed a layer of their skin, the tenderness masking their resilience.

But once you start to accept yourself, you’ll experience a cosmic shift in the universe. Start slow. Think of things that have always felt natural and real to you. For me that was always writing. I never thought writing made me special. I thought it was something everyone could and would do. It wasn’t until much more recently than I’d like to admit that I realized it was a gift. Something that was mine.

Sifting through nearly three decades of a shattered facade trying to find remnants of real wasn’t as hard as I thought it would be. It turns out I knew who I was all along but for whatever reason I never felt like I was good enough to put that person on display.

I know I’m not alone in this. I grew up in an age where social interaction was reserved for mostly face to face contact–except for those awful ambush three way calls and the occasional AIM away message mass attack. Behind a computer screen is where I’ve always belonged; I’m stronger when I’m armed with words. 

So find your strength in whatever makes you happy, in whatever makes you feel like you. For me that’s always been tapping out words on a keyboard.

But as long as I was waiting for the world to validate my worth, I was worthless. Validate yourself and the world will follow suit.