People may try to write your character, but it’s up to you to say, “This is who I am. This is what I believe. This is how I move through the world."

But here’s one thing: the moment you stop hiding, the moment you let yourself be seen, people stop making up stories about you. When you show up for you—the messy, real, imperfect version—you author your own story.

Each time, you create a future problem that a later version of you will regret. Perfection isn’t essential, and delays often catch up to you. You never want to keep looking back and rue how far ahead you could’ve been.

It's that simple, and there's something nice about that.

Most people

This comes from my latest essay. Read and subscribe if you're interested in more: inertiajournal.xyz/p/the-world-...

The truest humilty is knowing your voice matters because you matter.

When you speak with the full weight of your voice—not perfect, but genuinely yours—you'll discover that in being heard, you'll make it feel safer for others to be heard too.

Most people don't care, and that's fine. But if you're still reading, take more steps forward. Your mind is special.

It's a power we all carry: breathe the words that might alter your or someone else's direction in the right way. Be a lantern—as small or big as you like.

Otherwise, a voice unheard changes nothing.

None of them changed the world. But their voice changed mine.

Then thinking of the voices that changed me—teachers who were outspoken and helped more than they had to, friends who speak out hard truths and make you more comfortable with it, and strangers whose "Good morning!" could charge your soul for hours.

A highly successful businessman once told me the best advice is to simply 'raise your voice'

Reminder: it's just feelings you're afraid of. The people listening don't hate you; they're hardly thinking about you. Mostly themselves. So get comfortable with the stomach churn until you feel free from it.

The world wants to hear you, but it's also your job to ensure you're heard.

I had a hard time bringing my voice where it needed to be (writing helped), but I say: the essence of humilty is about not letting it become low self-esteem.