20/06/2026
There's a particular grief in being surrounded by people who love you and still feeling utterly alone because you can no longer show up as yourself.
This was one of the hardest parts of my journey that I rarely talked about.
I had people who cared. I had support. I had love.
But the woman they knew, the one who showed up, poured out, held things together, she was gone. And in her place was someone I barely recognized. Someone who couldn't give what she used to give. Someone who felt like a burden in every room.
The loneliness wasn't about being physically alone. It was about feeling invisible in my own life. Like the real me had been stripped away and what remained wasn't enough.
If you're feeling this right now, I want you to know something important:
You are still you. Even in this diminished, exhausted, unrecognizable season. The essence of who you are hasn't disappeared, it's just buried under the weight of what you're carrying.
And the people who truly love you? They're not waiting for the old version to return. They're right here, loving whoever you are today.
You don't have to perform your way back to belonging.