Each token is accompanied by conversation, by eye contact, by the vulnerability of saying, “I see you. Your work has dignity. Your presence matters.”

I am choosing to embrace the beautiful complexity of my own desires, even if it doesn’t make sense on a business card.

I share my story not to garner pity … but to shed all the stigma and burden around it.

I had realized early on, I was always going to be on my own. I, me, myself.

It's a struggle to reconcile the daughter they raised with the woman I've become, a woman who has achieved success on her own terms, yet still grapples with the echoes of their unmet expectations.

It’s been a sacred space with an accidental audience.

It’s taken me almost three weeks to fully recuperate from the event and in this time, I’ve had a lot of interesting, quiet conversations with myself.