Born 2 Be Bare Part 3 [portable] -

In this chapter, you stop explaining. You stop justifying why you don’t wear the heavy coats of pretense—the job titles that strangle your identity, the curated smiles that hide your exhaustion, the polite lies that oil the gears of uncomfortable rooms. You realize that most of what you’ve been carrying isn’t yours. It was handed to you: Be this. Want that. Hide this scar. Cover that truth.

I step away from the balcony, feeling the gritty concrete beneath my shoes. Each step is a negotiation: a promise to not let the world’s gaze dictate the shape of my skin, but also an acknowledgement that exposure can be a conduit for connection. The street is a river of strangers, each one a mirror that can either reflect me or shatter me. I choose to be the water that smooths the edges rather than the stone that cracks them. born 2 be bare part 3

To is not to be naked. It is to lay down the armor of expectations, the glossy veneer of social media likes, the polished rhetoric that we polish each morning before stepping out the door. It is to stand in the rawness of a moment and let the world see the trembling lines on our palms, the soft bruises on our elbows, the unedited colors of our skin. It is to watch the sunrise on the horizon of our own making and admit—without shame—that we are still learning the choreography of our own shadows. In this chapter, you stop explaining