We glorify individuality. We preach that every human is unique. That no two people are alike.
So why the hell do we keep building boxes for people to fit into?
Why do we shove those whose minds move like jazz—fluid, unpredictable, expansive—into square molds built for predictability and control?
I’ve come to realize this: boxes were never built for us. They were built to make other people feel comfortable. To help them categorize what they don’t understand. If your light makes someone else squint, you’re told to dim it. If your way of thinking doesn’t fit the dominant mold, you’re labeled “too much,” “too different,” “too complicated.”
But maybe that’s the problem: too many people mistake unfamiliar for unsafe.
I grew up in a place full of boxes. Boxes for what a woman should be. What a career should look like. What success should sound like. And not one of those boxes felt like home. Not one celebrated what was truly me. So I tried to find the least suffocating box. The one that bruised me the least. But even that, in time, felt like a slow death.
And I know I’m not alone.
There are countless souls out there—neurodivergent thinkers, deeply feeling humans, artists of all kinds—who are being asked to conform simply because their truth makes others uncomfortable. But being boxed in is not just harmful—it’s dehumanizing.
Authenticity is my North Star. And let me say this clearly: you cannot claim authenticity if you’re still trying to fit people into cages of your own comfort.
Stop boxing people. Stop boxing yourself.
Growth isn’t linear. Brilliance isn’t symmetrical. Souls don’t come with templates. We are wild. Messy. Beautifully unrepeatable. And that is the point.
So burn the box. Paint your own canvas. And if others can’t make sense of it?
That’s not your problem. That’s their limitation.
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