Hey Kaleigh!

Tag: mental-health

  • Let “No” Stand Alone

    Image from Pexels

    This is my reflection on boundaries and discomfort.

    There is something daunting about saying “no.” I am not referring to the anxiety that is already building or the bruxism I have had since my teens. I mean the blooming feeling that’s almost impossible to sit with. The budding fear.

    Saying “no” brings me more than just anxiety. It brings curiosity. It brings the urge to over-explain, even if I am not being questioned. To hand out a neatly prepared excuse so no one will think I’m mean or selfish or difficult. It brings the generous reflex to make myself small so someone else can remain comfortable.

    Saying “no” feels like slamming a door.

    I’ve spent years accepting that my boundaries will always require justification. That saying “no” needed to be cushioned with apologies. Somewhere along the way, I learned that being agreeable felt safer than being honest. That my esteem came from how accessible I was.

    But saying “no” is not rude. It is not defiant. It is not a rebellion against kindness.

    Saying “no” is information.

    “No” is dignity.

    “No” is choosing not to defy myself for the sake of being liked by others.

    The unsettling feeling doesn’t mean I did something wrong; it means I am doing something right. It means I am resisting old patterns that taught me love was conditional and approval was something I needed to chase.

    I am learning that “no” does not need a reason. I am learning that setting boundaries is scary, but not scarier than the resentment of always saying “yes.” I am learning that every time I ache for a quiet “no,” I feel the relief of a more honest “yes.”

    And maybe the most alleviating thing I can do is let “no” stand alone.

  • Pop Culture Messed With My Sense of Self

    Image from iStock

    I am sincerely learning how to really show up for myself. It’s not by cramping yourself into areas you don’t fit into, but by generously giving yourself love when you cage yourself in.

    I have a suitcase full of fears today. More than I ever had as a child. This bag of fears sneaks up on me.

    Still, I initiated extensive self-help. This work hasn’t made me confident.

    Social media has made me insecure.

    I am guarded, but I am not careful with details. I try to stand without being finicky, tell drawn-out stories, and teach 8th graders explanations to questions I am still interpreting. Still, I am terribly afraid of driving and making the first move. The tough part of living in this age is constantly making access to your true self bulletproof, whether it is the strategic “no filter” filter or proofreading and second guessing the caption too many times.

    Pop culture taught me that identity is something to be performed. That if you create the right routines, the right lighting, the right character, you will find the finished version of you. It convinced me to measure my life in “eras” rather than focusing on the big picture. To reinvent myself when I feel tired instead of resting. I learned that I am only confident if I am loud, sexy, and feminine. And I am constantly falling behind.

    So I tried to become the girls on my screen who always seem so sure of who they are. The girls with the morning routines that feel holy, interests that look well on camera, clean-girl opinions. And somewhere along the way, I mixed up being perceived with being known.

    What’s ironic is that the more self-aware I became, the more fragile I began to feel. Once you begin to pay attention, you notice every little crack. Each hesitation. The place where you’re still waiting for somebody’s permission. Pop culture never readies you for the slow, unglamorous part.

    I think that is what scares me about myself. I am afraid of making declarations. It’s like I am saying, this is what matters to me now, without knowing if it will still matter to me in a year. I’m afraid of being wrong. Of being too sincere in a world that gives fake niceties. Of loving something so much only to embarrassingly lose it later.

    And yet, there are pieces of me that I still hold on to. 

    I still write. I still teach. I still speak loudly about what I’m still learning.

    Perhaps pop culture didn’t ruin my sense of self. Maybe it just hid it. Maybe all of the uncertainty and anxiety is part of the undoing. Like a necessary pause before I choose myself again.

    For now, that feels like enough.

  • Becoming the Person I Already Am

    Image from Pexels

    When I was a child, I chose pink as my favorite color and never looked back.

    And now, twenty years later, no one questions it. They just accept it. I accept it too, without thinking. But sometimes I wonder how often we move through life on autopilot. 

    Sometimes the kindest thing you can do for yourself is to pause. To soften. To sit with yourself long enough to ask the questions you’ve been avoiding.

    Ask yourself why you feel the need to overexplain.

    Ask yourself what brings you joy.

    Tenderly, let yourself hear the answers.

    And do not worry if you change a little each day. I worry about myself more often than I admit. Sometimes I think I’m too timid, too mousy, too afraid of being misread.

    Then comes the guilt. The feeling that sweating over your small crisis is immature.

    But some messes just show that a room is lived in, not neglected.

    You don’t have to be mysterious. You don’t have to speak in riddles. You are allowed to share what feels right and keep what feels tender. You are free to have your own boundaries.

    When I was in college, I tried so hard to balance who I was and who I wanted to be. Not in some dramatic identity crisis. It was questioning what I could and couldn’t share. When I felt ashamed, I constantly challenged the validity of my emotions.

    Eventually, I learned that self-interrogation doesn’t lead to clarity. It just builds noise. And once you stop performing the character you’ve been playing for years, there’s this strange, open silence. It’s like stepping into an empty room and hearing your own breathing for the first time.

    I think that’s the weirdest part of growing up: understanding there is no singular real you ready to be uncovered. No grand prize after years of quietly curating the perfect you. There is just the you who exists in the now, the you who is still being formed.

    The real you shows up in the thoughtful choices you make when no one is watching. In the things you gravitate toward without thinking. In the hobbies you keep coming back to, even when you convince yourself it is silly. In the way you exhale around the people who make you feel seen.

    You are not a performance. You are not an aesthetic. You are more than the pink-loving child or the adult who keeps answering out of habit. 

    And here is the truth: you do not need to find “her.” You already are her. She is the person you have been quietly growing into.

  • I Still Have One Direction Infection

    Personal Photo – Love on Tour 2022

    The adults snickered, certain it was just a phase. Spoiler alert: it wasn’t.

    One of my first posts explains how One Direction defined my childhood. Losing Liam Payne last year unlocked something inside of me. Something that had muted itself.

    I still don’t know how such an intense, energetic child went so quiet inside. How time became so flimsy when the delicate child who adored those boys was shattered at 22 by a text from a childhood friend and a cruel TMZ headline that confirmed the worst.

    This is for those who are shakily struggling. Not facing some roaring problem, but something hidden inside. 

    You can still show up for yourself.

    Your smile isn’t gone forever.

    You still have so much work to do. The road is going to feel tumultuous. Something inside will still nod you in the right direction.

    Life hushes itself as you get older. Not obviously, but softly inside where your wild spark used to live.

    When you’re young, infatuation is unapologetically loud. Crooked posters taped on your bedroom walls, lyrics cringily typed as your Instagram caption, the strangely desperate wish that your mom would make a deal with 1D. It was a time of dramatics and earnestness and being so candid.

    Then 23 hit. With bills. A career. Responsibilities. There’s this idea of what I thought being a “grown-up” would look like. This isn’t that.

    But maybe I’m glad that loud devotion was never something I grew out of. Instead, it was practice. My “One Direction Infection” taught me to love others wholeheartedly, even if it hurts sometimes.

    When I remember the girl who never skipped a song, who watched videos of teen boys on stairs, who cared about five strangers like they were family, I realize she wasn’t silly at all. Her heart was open.

    And despite all that has come and gone, she is still in there. Still cheering.

    The world needs the love of a teenage girl. So here’s what I’m learning: 

    Bring back the posters.

    Rewatch the interviews. 

    Call your old friends. 

    Let yourself love loudly again. 

    Because if a band can hold a piece of your heart forever, so can someone real. And honestly, the world needs more genuine love.

  • Learning to Find Hope

    Image from Pinterest

    There are days where having hope feels like this fantasy dream that I half remember after waking up.

    I attack my thoughts of exhaustion with caffeine and pretend I’m no longer tired. Physically or emotionally.

    But somewhere in all the chaos, I am learning to find hope.

    Here is what I’m learning (gently, but surely):

    It is not enough to simply exist.

    You need to find a way to be okay with that existence.

    Not by repeating the mantras your yoga teacher preaches, though they can be lovely too, but in the way you carve time out of your busy week to meditate. In a simple, almost bland kind of self-love. The way you care for your friends without question. The way you would talk to someone, kindly.

    Ask yourself what your hopes are, and really wait for the answer.

    Ask, but don’t interrogate.

    You don’t have to be optimistic all the time. But you can be kind to yourself. And your greatest hopes start to feel within reach.

    So now, I am trying. Hoping that this practice of optimism will someday replace those moments of hopelessness altogether.

  • I’m On My Way, Just Stuck in Traffic

    Personal Photo Sept. 2025

    I always assumed I’d be there by now. Always assumed.

    I haven’t achieved everything I thought I would. But I am happy. I know what I want, I’ve joyfully researched the steps to get there, but things haven’t fallen into place yet. I cheerfully walk into rooms I don’t belong in, hoping one day I’ll find my place.

    But lately, I’m starting to doubt I ever will.

    Maybe the problem isn’t that I haven’t “arrived.” Maybe it is that I keep expecting it to feel like crossing a finish line. Like there will be some big neon sign that says Congrats, you made it! You’re enough. Instead, what I’m learning is that the hard work is the accomplishment. The trying, and showing up again even when it feels pointless, is what shapes me.

    And still, the world doesn’t always reward this kind of work. Being a teacher brings me immense joy that can’t be measured in paychecks or fancy titles. But on the harder days, when I’m exhausted and underpaid, it begins to feel like I’ve failed some invisible standard of success. Loving what I do doesn’t make the way that society undervalues it or treats teachers okay, sometimes the ache is heavier than I want to admit.

    The accomplishments are like rest stops along the way. Crucial, but overlooked if all I see is the final destination.

    A glow up isn’t always shiny. Sometimes it looks like keeping quiet promises to myself that no one else sees. Sometimes it is paying the pilates cancellation fee because I needed the rest. Sometimes it’s writing this, even after weeks of silence, and hitting publish anyway.

    So maybe I’m not lost; instead, I’m stuck in some traffic.

  • I Think I Love Myself

    There’s an identity I tend to slip into.

    She always knows exactly what to say. She explains her innermost thoughts eloquently. I yearn to be like her. She lives in her delusions, dreams in lattes, and keeps an airy hope brewing in her mind at all times.

    I ache to be her.

    I ache to be fully myself.

    Sometimes I believe in signs from the universe, the small coincidences that feel like cheeky little winks. I believe in the spirals, the doubt, the midnight snacks, the “am I pretty” messages to strangers online. The assumptions. The acceptance. The constant questioning of who I am.

    My life is a jumble of contradictions.

    Stretching my wings feels like a workout. Painful. Awkward. Transformative.

    There’s a hidden message in that, and hidden secrets that I carry with me.

    So I love this wholesome persona.

    She’s the part of me that longs to grow up, to outgrow the naivete, but is still exactly where she is meant to be.

  • I’m Afraid I’ll Never Be Enough for Myself

    Image from Pexels

    There’s this fantasy that I carry with me. It’s warm, magnetic, and inviting. In it, I step out of my comfort zone the way I tread the sidewalk: confident and not second-guessing a thing.

    But if this day ever comes, I’m doubtful that it will still feel like enough. Not in the way it does in my daydreams. I want something that truly nourishes me. Something that erases my flaws and keeps me from flinching at my own reflection.

    The trouble is, this version of me only exists in my head.

    I’d like to think I’m laid-back, but in reality I manage my emotions like a drill sergeant, especially when it comes to my anxiety. I am careful to the point of obsession. I’m particular — and like to know everything in advance. I’ve wasted years trying on which personality fits me best. I am leery of loving myself, because what if she doesn’t love me back?

    Reality is not kind. It critiques me. It rationalizes with me like the devil on my left shoulder. It evaluates me by how quickly my metabolism works after I give in and have a snack. It betrays me. And I am afraid it will shatter my fantasy.

    And I don’t know if I can handle the truth right now.

    I don’t mean to sound dramatic. I am just a bit apprehensive. Like a jittery emoji. I am constantly on edge and can’t find it in me to trust what others say.

    I am scared of what I truly am. That no one will ever be fond of my soft spots. That I’ll always be an unfinished draft.

    But maybe being unfinished is its own kind of wholeness. Maybe not having it all figured out is simply another model of completeness.

    Maybe someday someone will love me not in spite of my rough edges, but because of them.

    Maybe who I am will change with the seasons. Maybe each day will be the start of a new chapter.

  • Shaped By the Struggle

    Image from iStock

    There is a certain kind of trouble in knowing what is wrong but not how to settle the problem.

    This is how my problems feel sometimes: like some inexplicable trap. Complicated and agonizing just for the sake of it. A trap where the light at the end of the tunnel is just a veneer.

    But recently, I’ve begun to grasp that not every problem needs to be solved. Not just in the way I recall all of my “could’ve would’ve should’ve” moments when I’m stretched thin, but in the way that delicately feeling my emotions — all of them — heals me.

    This is how I am realizing that I often let my problems consume me. I should really let them form me.

    Now, I’m not saying, “I demand that all my problems disappear.” But instead, I am calling myself out on my own b.s. To stop crying over minor inconveniences. I’ve learned that your storyline can adjust when you no longer fit the narrative. That you can feel accomplished while also bothered that everything is falling apart.

    Sometimes I find that my troubles shrink when I concern myself with who I am versus who I worry about. Rather than polishing my Instagram feed and overexplaining my life decisions, like I’m in a Love Island confessional, I’m agreeing to let my life glisten without the fillers.

    I don’t think my approach is a lousy one. I used to be scared of this approach, but now I call it protecting my peace.

    Real life is not an aesthetic. The glow fades fast, things feel intense, wounds run deep, problems come back stronger, and you still make the same blunders.

    We all have errors we wish we could hide away. Our “this wasn’t my noblest decision” moments. But none of my breakdowns made me a failure — they made me gentler. Empathetic. More human.

    At the end of the day, I don’t love the struggle, but I can’t ignore how it’s shaped me.

    The bad taught me to see the good, and maybe that’s the point. To be able to look at everything and say: “This is my life and it is perfectly imperfect.”

  • Learning to Love the In-Progress Version of Me

    Image from Pexels

    I really thought that by 23 I would feel glamorous with a clear direction. I pictured myself as the kind of woman who wakes up at 6am for fun.

    But one day I woke up, glanced in the mirror, and thought: Wow, I’m an adult now. How did this happen? This image of me just came into existence one day. Not quite the successful woman I imagined.

    Turns out, entering true adulthood is not a glow-up montage with the best early 2000s romcom soundtrack. It is more like a winding road full of wrong turns, detours, and dead ends.

    And the hardest part is facing all of the routes you’ve been avoiding.

    When you strip away the identities you’ve been performing, you realize that you haven’t left yourself with much.

    Are you still you once everyone has stopped paying attention?

    This is what being in your 20s feels like: searching for yourself in a world that encourages you to be anyone but you.

    And let’s be honest, figuring out who you are can be an exhausting process, especially in a world obsessed with glow-ups and fast-fashion. Figuring out who you are feels like running a 5K in stilettos.

    Sometimes a breakthrough is simply saying no to what doesn’t feel right. Other times it’s unlearning the false ideas you believed. It is letting go, even if everyone else is telling you to hold on. It is choosing the in-progress version of yourself, even if she’s not trending on Tiktok.

    Here is what I am learning:

    Figuring out who you are is messy (and that’s okay).

    You know yourself better than anyone else.

    So no, I haven’t figured out who I am yet. But paying closer attention is the first step, and it feels like the most grown up thing I’ve done so far.