For decades, I did what every "good woman" was taught to do: care for others, hold it together, play the roles, stay strong. Somewhere in all of that holding, I lost the one person I was supposed to protect. Me.

I know what it feels like to be told you're "too much." To shrink for approval. To bury your truth under responsibility and silence, until you can't remember what your own voice sounds like.

I also know what it feels like to come back.

That return ...