Old Me Would’ve Let It Slide

And that’s the difference between who I was and who I am now.

One thing life will teach you is that you can’t allow everyone to have access to you. Your creativity, your journey, and definitely not your come-up.

Right when things started moving for me, a situation popped up that made me think, damn… already? That old reflex kicked in. The urge to say it’s always something even slipped through my mind. I had to remind myself that I no longer invite this into my reality.

But sometimes things don’t happen to stop you.
They happen to get you together.

In the past, I would’ve brushed it off. Given the benefit of the doubt. Let things slide just to keep the peace. And every time I did that, I paid for it later.

Today, I had a situation that could’ve easily taken things to a petty place. The kind of moment where reacting would’ve felt good for five minutes but caused problems later. I chose not to do that.

Instead, I paused. I paid attention to what was unfolding. I noticed the timing and the behavior. The same energy showed up more than once with the same person. It was one of those moments where, if you rush past it, you miss the lesson.

So instead of responding out of emotion, I stepped back and chose awareness over impulse.

And that’s when it hit me. Standing up for myself in the moment, instead of circling back later, felt good as hell. I felt lighter. For me, that’s growth. A clear reflection of where I am now versus where I used to be.