The Mask Was Never Meant to Be Forever...

For years, I wore it like armor...

The right tone. The ever evolving resume of accomplishments. The well timed laugh. The color-coded calendar that looked like excellence—but was really a survival map.

I was branded “gifted and talented" as a child. Was a high-functioning overachiever. Got A’s, led projects, and made deadlines. But only I knew the chaos behind the curtain. The last minute adrenaline rushes. The nights of mental ping pong. The exquisite burnout hiding behind executive functioning.

But under that polished mask??? A mind ricocheting between brilliant ideas and exhaustion. A heart too tender to survive unchecked expectations. And a nervous system so fried, it forgot how to rest.

It took me over 50 years to realize I wasn’t broken. I was masking.

Masking isn’t coping. It’s surviving.

And when the mask becomes the only version of you the world celebrates, you start to forget you ever had a face underneath.

I didn’t get diagnosed with ADHD until I was 55. By then, the mask had grooves. But chiren, once I started peeling it off, once I gave myself permission to not perform productivity, to not make excuses for sensory overload, to not be digestible—I met someone extraordinary: myself.

You don’t have to earn your rest. You don’t have to be impressive to be worthy. You don’t have to be palatable to be powerful.

The mask may have gotten you here, but it can’t take you where you’re going.

I promise: the real YOU is worth meeting.