municated through assumption, through the casual way someone drops off dogs without asking, through messages that say do not let us down instead of how are you doing.
Recognizing those patterns and choosing to step outside them is not selfish. It is, in fact, one of the most courageous things a person can do — especially at a stage of life when the world tends to assume your story is already written.
Planning for your own future, protecting your own time, and maintaining your own sense of identity through the transitions that come with later life are not luxuries. They are forms of self-respect.
Carmen did not leave because she stopped loving her family. She left because she finally started honoring herself.
And there is a version of that choice available to all of us — not necessarily a cruise ship, not necessarily a dramatic departure before dawn, but the quieter, daily decision to stop making yourself smaller so others can stay comfortable.
The water ahead of Carmen was open and wide and entirely her own.
That is not a small thing.
That is everything.
