If there’s one thing I’ve perfected, it’s the art of the excuse. I could write a book about the clever detours I’ve invented to sidestep my own plans. The thing is, after a while, those little “not todays” don’t sound clever at all. They’re just heavy. They pile up, get dusty, and start to crowd out the part of me that actually wants more from life. No one ever warned me how sneaky excuses could be. They slip in quietly, wearing the mask of logic and self-care, telling me I’ll be ready tomorrow, or that I deserve a break, or that someone …
You Don’t Owe the World a Performance
In a grocery store checkout line, I apologized to a woman who hadn’t even acknowledged me. Not because I was in the way—just because I was there. That reflexive "Sorry" didn’t come from manners. It came from habit. A quiet, conditioned surrender. This is what it means to perform: to constantly manage your presence so you don’t offend by existing. Not to gain praise, but to avoid being seen as too much. Anxiety doesn’t shout. It edits. It rewrites posture, tone, even silence. You can breeze through the day—emails done, meetings handled, …
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Nobody Teaches You How to Come Back
Growth is an oddly quiet affair.Not silent like a mountain top or a spa commercial.Quiet like a room after someone has left. You think you’ll feel lighter, but what shows up first is the echo—of old roles,of things unsaid,of laughter that now sounds rehearsed in your memory. The real shift isn’t when you start saying no.It’s when you stop over-explaining the yes. Suddenly, people don’t know where to place you.You’re no longer the cushion they leaned on or the backstage manager who kept everyone else's chaos in check. You’re not …
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Quietly Dangerous: What Alicia Florrick Taught Me About the Real Cost of Survival
There's a scene in The Good Wife that sticks with me. Alicia Florrick walks silently down a hallway, wine glass in hand, heels clicking firmly against marble floors. She doesn't scream or shout; her silence holds more weight than any outburst ever could. Watching her, I saw a reflection of moments I've known too well: times when silence felt safer than speaking the truth, when politeness was more valued than honesty. I've stood in hallways like that, though mine were usually less glamorous—more fluorescent-lit corporate spaces, fewer …
When Full Price Feels Fair, But Discount Feels Familiar
Reconciling self-worth with the messy truth about love and effort It didn’t end with a bang. It ended like a slow leak. Not with a betrayal, but with a shrug. A tired sigh followed by: "It’s fine." It wasn’t. I knew it. My body had known it longer than my mouth was willing to admit. The sigh was just a placeholder for all the things I didn’t feel safe enough—or maybe brave enough—to say. It wasn’t one big thing. It was a hundred little ones. Another casual plan that included me on paper but excluded me in practice. A conversation …
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Growth Isn’t a Group Agreement
Change has a cost, and it’s not just effort. It’s tension. Start improving yourself—your focus, your habits, your mindset—and you’ll feel it. Not just internally, but between you and the people who’ve known the earlier version of you. The one who tolerated more, who laughed things off, who didn't ask so many questions. When one person starts growing, the dynamic shifts. Not always dramatically. Not always in conflict. But enough to notice. Enough to create distance. You begin valuing your time differently. Your conversations start …
How AI is Reshaping Design Leadership and Designer Hiring
One afternoon, a designer slid a portfolio across the table. Immaculate work. Every detail whispered precision—layout, type, flow. But something about it felt… plastic. “Midjourney did most of it,” he admitted. And just like that, the illusion shattered. AI hadn’t just entered the room—it had redecorated it and started hosting interviews. AI is no longer experimental; it’s operational. Inside product teams, it’s writing code, sketching interfaces, even making hiring decisions. And in the middle of it all, design leaders are being told to …
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Should I Stay or Should I Go? Why the Hardest Decisions Don’t Fit Neatly on a Mood Board
I. The Exit Myth We love an exit. Especially a well-timed, sharply worded one. The kind that gets a standing ovation in a boardroom or a viral quote block on Instagram. “Know your worth,” it says. “Walk away from what doesn’t serve you.” We cheer. We repost. We crave the empowerment of decisive departures. But real life isn’t an airport departure board. Sometimes, the only way to tell if you’re making the right decision is by living through the wrong one. I’ve left jobs that looked great on paper. Walked out of relationships where love …