the un-aesthetic truth about my “glow up”

from the outside, it’s easy to romanticize someone’s before-and-after:
“wow, she got her life together.”
“discipline queen.”
“you’re so inspiring.”

here’s what you don’t see in the highlight reel of my glow up after college:

• the nights i ate cereal for dinner because cooking felt like solving a physics problem

• the months my clothes didn’t fit and i didn’t have money to replace them

• the gym sessions where i did one set, sat in the bathroom, and almost went home

• the mornings i woke up already exhausted from my own thoughts

my progress wasn’t a straight line. it was a thousand tiny, unphotogenic choices that no one clapped for:

• showing up to therapy

• taking meds even when i hated needing them

• going back to the gym after ghosting it for weeks

• telling the truth to my friends instead of pretending i was fine

if you’re in your “messy middle” right now, please hear this:
you’re not behind. you’re not broken. you’re in the part of the story most people crop out.

bounce back better grew out of that middle — the part where i decided i was done waiting to feel “ready” and started building tiny, forgiving systems that let me live again.

not a princess diaries makeover.
not a 4am hustle montage.

just one girl, one nervous system, and a decision:
i refuse to abandon myself this time.

and if that’s a decision you’re ready to practice too, you’re already closer than you think.