Who’s writing your story?

When you say intergenerational trauma, it’s not just the ravages of war that leave you contaminated. It’s the quiet unspoken scripts that stay on repeat, ad nauseum. Because no one wants to be the person who questions the elders. Disrupts the status quo. You follow the script: get straight A’s, go to a top college, get a high paying job, work up the ladder and also marry and bear children at just the right time. Too fast, and you’ll be glanced at sideways. Too slow, and you’re labeled a discard, a “not desirable” enough. Too much, or not enough is still “not enough.” It’s exhausting, and there’s no end in sight. A light inside flickers. Fight the elder-achy. It’s “respect your elders” weaponized into blind obedience at all costs. 

So, what do you do now? 

Take a breath. Recognize others have gone before you, and are alongside of you now. Maybe the quiet scream inside of you is inviting you to a deeper relationship with yourself. To befriend a “you” that you have yet to discover. You might find some jagged edges. You might find that your voice matters. That you, yourself, as you are now, matters. You don’t need to sacrifice yourself on the altar of your elders. What if you really do get to re-write the stars?