Stop shrinking yourself

I’m no longer shrinking to fit into boxes—I’m expanding to hold all that I am.

I think for so long, I believed staying in the box was the right thing to do.

Coming from immigrant parents, I inherited their belief that staying away from ‘trouble’ or ‘attention’ was the best way of survival. As I grew older, I realized that although it worked well for my parents when they immigrated to America, this was not going to be the case for me.

I always felt intrinsically that I was destined for more. I was destined for greater.

It became apparent to me that I hated the idea of a box. 

I hated the idea of being stuck between parameters I did not set for myself.

If I were to grow and become a GIANT version of myself, I would enjoy that so much more than shrinking myself so others could simply walk over me or ignore me. 

When I have limiting beliefs, I think back on how they are now instilled within me. When was it, in my life story, that these constraints were then accepted as facts? Why do I feel fearful of being seen? Being known? Being me? 

It feels exciting when I think about the chance to re-introduce myself as a multi-hyphenate artist. 

It feels fun to think about all the adventures I’ve been on and who I will become.

It feels expansive in my being to embrace and grow into this bold, confident, ‘I don’t care what you think, I’m gonna do me’ version of myself. 

When I think about who I want to be, I think about how my life gets amounted to just sentences when I am asked ‘What do you do for work?’ ‘Tell me about yourself.’ 

I realized how I have always tried to pick a lane for myself and also failed to stay in one.

I come from a family of entrepreneurs, studied business myself, and knew that eventually I would want to be an entrepreneur too. On the flip side, I have been a dancer for most of my life and looooved performing arts, and I always wanted to be an artist of some kind. I also really love to write and express myself, and would love to become a published author someday. I also have 23490 other hobbies that we won’t get into today. But other interests include travel (blogging), working out, and photography.  

I think it’s so much more fun to be expressive and share all sides of me, that make me - well, me. I realized now in this chapter of life, I don’t need to stay in just this lane or that lane. I do admire how people can be in 5 lanes at once and see it work out, although chaotically, but also harmoniously, beautifully, and fruitfully. I love reading about someone’s backstory who may be this huge music artist, but they also have skills in xyz, and who knows, having the RANGE of being multi-faceted, could help you out in the long run. 

Also, come to think of it, who knows who I would have become if I forced myself to only pursue one thing in life? What experiences would I have missed out on? Who would I have not met in my life if I had never given any of my dreams a fighting chance?

All this to say, my advice is you don’t need to pick a lane. You don’t need to ‘niche down’ like everyone on the internet tells you to. You can let all your sides shine through. You can allow yourself to be explorative. Enjoy your 12309123 hobbies. Most importantly, just keep being you.