Where Silence Learned to Speak: This Is Where It Begins

Some things you go through in life never fully go away.

You bury them.

You live with them.

You build around them like they’re just another room in the house.

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This is my most vulnerable post yet. But after the growth I’ve experienced over the past few years—and my mission to become the most authentic version of myself—it’s time to speak this truth. Not just for me, but for the ones who’ve lived through the same kind of silence.

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When I was in first grade, I was lured into a situation I didn’t have the tools to understand or fight. There were two older boys across the street—one a little older than me, the other in high school. The younger one brought me into his older brother’s room. At first, it felt like nothing. Just two kids going to hang out with “big brother.”

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But then came the magazine. Images I’d never seen. A sick feeling in my stomach I still remember to this day. I didn’t have the language for it, but I knew something wasn’t right.

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And what followed… I won’t go into detail—because I’ve made peace with the fact that the details don’t define me. But a line was crossed that day. I was just a kid—and I walked out of that house changed forever.

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We never hung out again after that. In fact, the younger one bullied me. Mocked me. Used what happened as a weapon. Maybe it was shame. Maybe it was a tactic to keep me silent. Either way, it worked.

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I didn’t tell anyone. Not my parents. Not because I didn’t love or trust them. I did—and still do. But the fear, the shame… it made silence feel safer than the truth.

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So I buried it. And I survived.

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But survival leaves marks.

It becomes your blueprint for how you respond to pain, how you relate to others, how you see yourself.

It teaches you lessons long before you ever have the words to fight back.

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As I’ve stripped away layers of myself these past few years—especially these last few months—I’ve started getting closer to the source. Understanding the roots of why I react the way I do. Why I’ve struggled with betrayal. Why certain things in my business or relationships hit so deep.

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This part of my journey… it starts here.

Not with anger. Not with blame.

But with truth.

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Because healing begins when we name the shadows.

When we speak the buried truths.

And when we stop pretending that silence is strength.

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If this helps even one person feel seen, or gives someone the courage to look inward, then it was worth it.

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You’re not alone.

There’s healing in being heard.

There’s power in sharing your truth.

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This isn’t the whole story.

But it’s where this piece begins.

And where I begin to turn pain into purpose—

By finding the gold in what tried to break me.

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#RelentlessPursuit