For a long time I searched for pieces of myself in other people.
I searched in relationships that felt almost right,
Almost safe,
Almost enough.
I searched in friendships that loved the version of me that didn't ask for too much,
That stayed small and easy to hold.
I searched in mentors,
In family,
In people who seemed to carry what I thought I was missing.
And the thing is,
I didn't realize I was searching.
I just thought I was trying to feel whole,
To feel seen,
To feel like I belonged somewhere or to someone.
But what I now know is that you can't find a part of yourself in somebody else.
You can't search for your worth in someone else's eyes.
You can't hope that their love will heal the part of you that still feels unlovable.
You can't expect their presence to fill the void of your own absence.
That's not how healing works.
That's not how coming home to yourself works.
Because the truth is,
There is no version of love,
Not even the most genuine,
Beautiful kind,
That will feel like enough until you see yourself as worthy of it.
Until you stop handing other people the map and start walking yourself home.
And that journey?
It's not easy,
I'm not going to lie.
But it is everything.
It's the moment you realize your value never lived in someone else's opinion.
That your softness was never something to hide.
That your strength was never something to prove.
It's the quiet remembering that everything you've been searching for lives inside of you already.
I know what it feels like to keep looking outside of yourself,
Hoping the next person will be the one to finally make you feel whole.
But I also know the moment you stop searching out there and turn inward,
Something shifts.
You start to hear your soul's voice beneath the noise.
And you start to trust the way your body exhales when you finally stop chasing.
So if you're still looking for yourself in someone else,
I want you to know,
You won't find them there.
But you will find them.
In the stillness.
In the boundaries you thought you could never hold.
In the breath you take when you choose yourself again.
In the truth that rises up when no one else is watching.
That's where I found her too.
Not in someone else's arms.
Not in the approval I once thought I needed.
But in the quiet moments I showed up for myself.
In the safety I built from the inside out.
In the love I slowly allowed to grow between me and the parts of me I had abandoned.
It didn't happen all at once.
There was no sudden arrival.
No single day where it all made sense.
It was little by little.
Choosing myself when it felt impossible.
Listening inward when silence felt unbearable.
Trusting that even when I felt lost,
There was still something steady within me waiting to be remembered.
And when I finally stopped searching for myself in someone else,
I realized I had never really been lost at all.
I had only been waiting to be met.
Waiting to be held.
Waiting to be chosen.
Waiting to be loved.
And that someone,
The one I had been searching for,
The one I thought I'd find in somebody else,
Was me.
So today as you hear these words,
Let them land where they need to.
Maybe there's a part of you that's been waiting for someone else to give you permission,
Or validation,
Or proof that you're enough.
Maybe there's a part that has been so desperate to be loved that it forgot what it feels like to offer love towards themselves.
Take a breath here.
Feel your chest rise and fall.
And notice the way your body softens when you remind yourself that you don't need to be found in somebody else.
You are here.
You are whole.
You are enough.
And maybe,
Just maybe,
It's time to start walking yourself home.
