This is the part of me ...

For the longest time, I moved to the beat of everyone else’s drum — the people pleaser, the one who made sure everyone else was good while never stopping to ask if I was. I lived in the version of me that made other people comfortable, never once thinking about what I needed to feel at home in my own skin.

I was the quiet kid.

The last of the Mohicans — the youngest, the introverted extrovert, the wild one with the loud laugh and the even louder dreams. Big goals, extreme visions, even as a teenager. I was always a visionary, but I didn’t always have the right canvas.

Life has always been my painting, my picture — I dreamed in color but for a long time, I lived in black and white.

And you know what?

When you don’t know how to love yourself, you leave the door wide open for people to mishandle you.

People couldn’t treat me right because I didn’t know how to treat me right.

Simple as that.

But that’s the beauty of growth — when you finally realize the power you have to choose you, everything starts shifting.

The way you walk changes.

The way you talk to yourself changes.

The way you let people show up (or not show up) in your life changes.

And I’m still growing. Still learning.

Still stepping into the version of me that doesn’t just dream in color…

She lives in it now.

Now?

Now I’m learning to walk to the beat of my own drum — the one that’s been playing inside of me this whole time, just waiting for me to listen.

I’m choosing me without guilt.

I’m protecting my peace without needing to explain it.

I’m dreaming in color — and living in it, fully, loudly, unapologetically.

I don’t shrink myself anymore just to fit in rooms I was never meant to sit in.

I don’t hand over the paintbrush of my life to anyone else.

If it’s not love, if it’s not peace, if it’s not aligned — it’s a no for me.

I’m building a life that feels like sunshine on my skin, like the soft beat of a drum that belongs to me.

I’m attracting relationships that feel like home, opportunities that feel like freedom, and moments that feel like magic because that’s what happens when you finally choose yourself first.

I’m not who I used to be.

And that’s exactly the point.

I didn’t just find myself. I created her.