AND….STILL WE RISE

“We Were Raised to Vanish, and Still…We Became Visible”

We weren’t born confident. We were born into systems that tried their hardest to make us disappear.

Born in the 1980s and 90s, we weren’t raised to shine. We were trained gently, silently to serve. To stay small. To be pleasing. To know our place.

Even the ones of us raised with love… weren’t raised with belief.

And so confidence? It didn’t arrive like a birthright. It came like a war. Like stitching your soul back together with trembling hands after years of being told “You’re too much.” “You’ll never be enough.”

The Mothers Who Forgot to Protect Us

And the most heartbreaking part? The betrayal didn’t always come from fathers, or men.

It came from the women. The mothers. The mother-in-laws. The aunts. The sisters. The ones who should’ve known.

But they, too, were raised in chains. They were handed scripts instead of choices. They were taught that silence was strength and that daughters were liabilities to be married off, not miracles to be unleashed.

They didn’t know how to protect us because no one ever protected them.

But now? Now, the silence has cracked.

And we, their daughters, are the ones picking up the pieces.

The Fire Beneath Our Skin

Confidence for women like us is not soft. It’s not gentle. It’s not even natural.

It’s forged. Ripped from our own ribs. Built in the shadows, through therapy, rebellion, heartbreak, and sheer audacity.

It’s what you find when you’ve been abandoned by your own upbringing, and yet still show up in rooms determined to be seen.

We weren’t told, “You are powerful.” We were told, “Keep your voice down.”

So now, we whisper spells in our own names. We light candles in the mirror. We mother ourselves. And we raise daughters who will never have to recover from their girlhoods.

This Is What They Never Prepared Us For

No one taught us how to come undone in a marriage, how to hold a child while losing ourselves, how to cry without shame, how to leave what kills us, how to start over again, and again and again.

No one taught us how to live for ourselves.

We were expected to manage lives. But not our own.

And when we finally said — “No more,” we were labeled difficult. Dramatic. Dangerous.

But maybe that’s what a woman looks like when she finally chooses herself. Maybe that’s what power sounds like when it’s rising through grief?

And Still, We Rise

Today, I am 42. And I am still looking for my place in the world. Every damn day. And that search? It is a battle.

Not because I’m lost but because the world still isn’t ready for a woman like me to be found.

But I’m here. I’m still standing. I’m still creating. I’m still burning down everything I was told I had to be.

Because I was raised to believe I was small. And yet….I’ve become limitless.

Dear Daughters, We’re Changing It All

We are the mothers now. The cycle-breakers. The ones who say:

“You will never doubt your worth in my home.” “You will never shrink to be loved.” “You are not too much. You are the beginning of everything.”

We are not perfect. But we are conscious. Awake. And fiercely, unapologetically alive.

So to every woman reading this who’s still unlearning shame, still rediscovering her voice, still aching to be understood:

I see you. I am you. And you are sacred.

We were never supposed to be this brave. And still we are.