I Am Here. I Am Whole. I Am Enough.

For the first time in my life, I can feel these words settling into my bones, not just something to say, but something that finally feels real to me.

It’s taken so many years to get here, so long that I didn’t even realize how deep that old belief had sunk in, the one that said I wasn’t enough, that there was something wrong with me that made me unlovable.

Abandonment from the very beginning can do that to you.

It can convince you that if the people who were supposed to love you the most didn’t want you, then there must be something in you that can’t be loved at all.

But I see it differently now.

I know that healing is possible, even if it doesn’t look like a perfect fix.

It doesn’t erase what came before, it doesn’t make the past feel any less heavy, but it opens up a space inside me that wasn’t there before, a place where I can stand and feel that I belong to myself.

And that’s what matters most.

It isn’t an easy road, it’s messy and painful and there are days I still wonder if I’ll ever really trust it, but it’s worth it.

It’s worth it for the peace I feel in my own body.

It’s worth it because I know now that I don’t have to be anyone’s emotional ATM, and I don’t have to keep trying to prove my worth to people who couldn’t see it.

If you’re reading this and carrying that same old ache, the one that tells you you’re too much or too little or too broken to be loved, let these words be a gentle reminder that you don’t have to earn your place in this world.

You are here, and you’re allowed to take up space.
You are whole, even with the parts of you that are still healing.
You are enough, always.

-Maria