Somewhere along the way, you received a blueprint.
It wasn't handed to you explicitly, no one sat you down and said, 'This is who you're allowed to be.' But it was there, woven into every raised eyebrow, every offhand comment, every unspoken expectation.
Be ambitious, but not threatening. Be beautiful, but not vain. Be confident, but not arrogant. Be successful, but don't make anyone uncomfortable.
The blueprint was designed to keep you useful, agreeable, and small enough to fit into spaces that were never built for you.
And for a while, maybe you followed it. Maybe you excelled at it. Maybe you became so good at being what everyone expected that you forgot there was another option.
But that woman, the one the blueprint was supposed to create, she isn't you.
The woman you were never supposed to become is the one who takes up space unapologetically. Who speaks before she's certain she'll be welcomed. Who chooses herself without requiring permission. Who is soft and fierce in the same breath.
She's the one who makes people slightly uncomfortable, not because she's unkind, but because her existence quietly challenges the rules everyone else is still following.
I spent decades trying to be the woman I was supposed to be. I was good at it. I was praised for it. And I was quietly suffocating.
The moment I gave myself permission to become someone else, someone truer, everything changed. Not overnight. Not easily. But irrevocably.
You don't need to burn the blueprint publicly. You don't need to announce your rebellion. You just need to stop letting it run your life.
The woman you were never supposed to become is waiting. She's patient. She's been there all along.
Cori x
