Seeing It for What It Is

I saw this... and it struck me. Sometimes the signs are quiet whispers; other times they blaze like neon billboards. And slowly, I’m learning that people usually know exactly what they’re doing. The real danger isn’t in their choices, but in my refusal to see them clearly. I cling to the version of them I built in my mind, even when reality is right in front of me.

It’s exhausting, so much so that I’m already tired of tomorrow just thinking about it. But there’s freedom in honesty, in choosing what is over what I wish it to be.

Maybe you have felt this too, carrying the weight of illusions you weren’t ready to release. It hurts to let go of the person you hoped they were. Yet there is quiet strength in seeing things as they truly are.

Clarity is not always gentle, but it is honest. And while reality may not give us the comfort of our illusions, it offers us the freedom to move forward without pretending.

In that freedom, we learn to choose ourselves, to honour the truth before us, and to walk lighter than before.

-Oluwademilade from MANI