I Am Not Broken. I Am Exhausted.
Since October, I’ve been carrying a pressure I cannot quite name. I had to give more of myself in every direction — work, home, responsibility — until there was nothing left that felt like me. I look in the mirror and see a tired woman trying to keep everything together without a backup plan if she collapses. I feel close to burnout. My head hurts. I am nervous. I raise my voice too easily — and I hate that version of myself. My body is already warning me. The headaches are not random. They feel like a quiet “slow down.” But slowing down feels unacceptable right now. There is too much work. My little boy has been sick for 20 days. I took on more so my partner could study. I kept going. And now I feel like I am losing the ground beneath my feet. Right now, I need silence. No voices. No schedules. No explanations. Just existing. Breathing. Feeling. Maybe in that silence I would find my loving self again — the one I seem to have placed behind everything else. She deser...
