So, who am I?

My name is Paulette.

I am a wife of over thirty years, a mama, a Mimi, and a woman who knows what it feels like to smile on the outside while carrying more than anyone ever sees.

I know what it is like to keep going when you are tired in places rest does not reach. To be the one everyone leans on, while quietly wondering who is holding you. To show up, to give, to pour out, and still feel like there are parts of you running on empty.

I know what it feels like to carry strength in one hand and silent questions in the other. To look at your life and see all that you have made it through, yet still feel the weight of what was lost along the way. To wonder how you can be so strong and still feel so uncertain at the same time.

I know what it feels like to sit in the aftermath of your own life and not fully recognize yourself. To realize that somewhere along the way, pieces of you were set aside, quieted, or forgotten just so you could survive what you were walking through.

For a long time, I lived there.

I lived in the space between who I had been and who I was becoming, not fully either one. I lived in the tension of holding it all together while feeling like something inside of me was still trying to find its way back to the surface.

And if I am being honest, there were moments I wondered if I ever would.