Lately, I’ve been thinking a lot about the weight we carry. Not the kind you can see, but the kind that settles deep in your bones—the expectations, the obligations, the versions of ourselves we’ve outgrown but still try to squeeze into, like a pair of jeans we refuse to admit don’t fit anymore.
It’s easy to hold onto things long past their expiration date. The job that no longer challenges you but feels safe. The friendships that have faded into obligation. The routines that keep you in place rather than pushing you forward. We tell ourselves we should stay. We should be grateful. We should make it work. And so, we shrink ourselves to fit the things that no longer fit us.
But what if we didn’t?
What if, instead of clinging to the comfort of what’s familiar, we allowed ourselves the space to grow into something new? What if we had the courage to say, this isn’t for me anymore—without apology, without justification?
Shedding what no longer serves you is terrifying. It requires a kind of bravery we don’t often talk about—the kind that whispers rather than shouts, that nudges rather than demands. It’s not a grand act of rebellion, but a quiet revolution within yourself.
For me, this has been a year of letting go. Of leaving behind things that felt like security blankets but were actually weighing me down. A job, a version of myself, even certain expectations I’d placed on my own future. And you know what? It’s uncomfortable. It’s scary. It’s standing at the edge of the unknown and forcing yourself to trust that you won’t fall.
But I’ve also realized something else: Reaching for something new is just as brave as letting go of something old.
There’s no roadmap for what comes next. No guarantee that the thing we reach for will be better, or easier, or safer. But there’s something sacred in the act of reaching itself—in choosing, over and over again, to believe that there is something better waiting for us if we are willing to step forward.
So here’s to the shedding. To the reaching. To the terrifying, exhilarating, utterly necessary act of becoming who we are meant to be.