What I’d Tell My First-Day Self
Work hard. But not harder than your health allows. Nobody gets a trophy for running themselves into the ground.
The Email They Sent at 4:58 on a Friday
It wasn’t a surprise. That’s the worst part. You always know before they tell you. The body keeps the score.
I Smiled Through Every Single One of Those Meetings
For years I sat in rooms where decisions were made about me, without me. I smiled when I disagreed. I nodded when I wanted to push back. I dressed the part, spoke the language, played the game — because that’s what you do when you need the paycheck and you haven’t yet found your way […]
The Sunday feeling and how I finally broke it
That dread that starts at 4pm. For years I thought it was normal. It wasn’t.
Three friends at a table. One secret between all of us.
We ordered wine. We talked about everything except the thing none of us could say.
The colleague who saw through everything I was hiding
She never said anything directly. But the way she looked at me in that meeting — she knew.
The road I didn’t take still visits me sometimes
A different city. A different offer. A version of my life I chose not to live. I wonder about her often.
Who am I when no one is watching
I spent so long performing the right version of myself. Then one day, no one was looking. I didn’t know what to do.
The apology that came ten years too late
She found me on a Tuesday evening. The message was two sentences long. It changed something I didn’t know was still broken.
I quit on a Tuesday and didn’t tell anyone until Friday
Four days of living a secret. What I learned about myself in that in-between.