Stop Playing Small
On May 19th, exactly one month after my 26th birthday, I broke my ankle racing to catch the subway. It was my third day at my new job that I started, and the first bone that I have ever broken. I remember very vividly slipping on the train platform as it was wet from the rain, hearing my bone snap, and watching my ankle blow up like a balloon. If that doesn’t scream “WELCOME TO NEW YORK, B*TCH” I don’t know what does.
The days following my injury were some of the most mentally exhausting days of my adult life. NYC is inarguably one of the worst cities to navigate as a disabled person to any extent, and as someone who is constantly on the go, I couldn’t imagine slowing down. I went back to work the day after I broke my ankle and was trying to continue living my life normally on one leg. That is until I almost got hit by a car 5 days after my accident when I was leaving my first doctor's appointment.
Whether you believe in God or the Universe, the series of events that have happened in my life over the past few years are not coincidental. Me breaking my ankle right before my first summer in NYC is no exception. Almost getting hit by a car while I’m crossing a crosswalk on crutches…unreal. The day that I almost got hit by a car is the day that I realized something had to change. So I decided to go off the grid, delete my social media and reflect on why the hell I was being forced into a state of solitude.
A year and a half ago, I had this grandiose idea that I would start a podcast, a movement, a platform to just word vomit and make sense of everything going on in this dumpster fire we call “life”. I kept going back and forth on my ideas and allowed my fear of rejection to stop me from progressing. I would constantly dumb myself down and push all of these creative ideas to the wayside because truthfully, I have been scared of my own success. Not only that but I have been scared of accepting my truth.
And truth be told, I don’t give a sh*t anymore. I would rather speak from a place of love to lift others up than allow someone's narrow-mindedness to keep me in a chokehold. The best advice I have ever received is that if you speak with integrity and have good intentions, you can do no wrong. So, if you are someone who has been belittled, taken advantage of, or made to feel unworthy, consider my words to be your personal hype woman. This is just My Two Cents based on my personal experiences, and I’m sticking to it.