The first year taught me how to dream,

The second taught me dreams could die.

The third year was spent collecting pieces,

The fourth, remembering how to fly.

The year I let my imagination soar,

creating worlds I’d never seen before.

I poured entire universes onto pages,

A novel born of dreams that lasted ages.

And then came the year that evened the score.

The year that brought me to a halt,

showed me that dreams are not all you need,

when the world planted doubt, the seed,

grew until my anxieties were throughout.

And then came the year I wandered the earth.

The year when loneliness swallowed me whole,

Alone in a bed once meant for two.

Though you were gone, your ghost remained,

Your breath against my neck as tears fell through.

And then came the year that made it all worth it.

The year a fire awakened within,

A strength I never knew I possessed.

I learned to love the soul beneath my skin,

And spoke to God of all I couldn’t understand.

And then came the year my son was born.

The year I was blessed with the name of mother,

And learned a love unlike any other.

The child I’d carried beneath my heart,

Now gazed upon a world of wonder.

And then came the year I finished college.

The year that made it all worth the pain,

walking across that grand big stage,

being able to say I made it at last,

despite the trials that tried to hold me back.

And then came the year I lost my grandmother.

The year that nearly shattered my soul,

When I lost the woman whose love made me whole.

Her home was a haven for the weary and worn,

A place where the lost could find warmth.

Though she’s gone, her love remains,

In every heart she helped restore.

Then came the year I became an author.

The year those childhood dreams came true,

When words I’d written finally took flight.

If my younger self could see me now,

She’d marvel at the heights we’d reached.

But Grandma always knew I could,

She believed in dreams I barely understood.

Then came the year the pandemic hit us.

The year that people got sick and died,

we quarantined inside our homes,

stayed six feet apart at all times,

furthering the great divide.

Then came the year I found myself.

The year the pieces finally fell into place,

And I understood the trials I’d faced.

Every heartbreak, every loss, every tear,

Had shaped the woman standing here.

I’d spent a decade searching for meaning,

Only to discover that I have always been the key.

Ten years, ten chapters,
and a thousand versions of me.

But for the first time,
the next chapter belongs to the woman
I am choosing to be.