Category: growth
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When the Rules Cut Deeper Than Hair
Why Are We Still Shaving Our Daughters’ Hair? The Colonial Rules That Keep Us Bound Generations after colonial rule ended, many Ghanaian schools still enforce hair-shaving policies rooted in control, not culture. It’s time we ask — why are we still upholding rules designed to make us small? A Viral Video That Struck a Nerve…
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Choosing Myself: Navigating Identity Between Two Worlds.
When I first moved to the UK, every outing felt like a doorway to something new. I said yes to almost every invitation, eager to learn, to belong. So when I got invited to my first party, I pictured a big meal, laughter around a table—the kind of gathering I’d known all my life. The…
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Beyond Dress Sizes: An African Woman’s Journey to Body Freedom.
Coming Home to My Body—how I broke up with diet culture and learned to love my Afrocentric self. I was in college when I overheard two boys talking about me. “She’s alright,” one said, “but she has bad skin.” How rude! I didn’t even have acne in my early teens, but I struggled in my…
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You Are Not Late: Redefining Milestones on My Own Terms
By 28, I was “supposed” to be married with 2.5 children, a family home, a dog, and a fulfilling career. But those were never my dreams. I wasn’t the little girl planning a wedding in her head. My parents and guardians had their blueprint, and they repeated it so often that I stopped myself from…
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Why “I’m Okay” Was the Biggest Lie I Told Myself
I bet you’ve forgotten lockdown by now. For me, it’s a time I’ll never shake off. The first few months were brutal. No office. No routine. No distractions. Just me, my thoughts, and the uncomfortable truth that I couldn’t escape my own company. One afternoon, after a frustrating call with my father, I was ranting…
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From Ranting on Paper to Journaling With Purpose
Do you have a way to process your thoughts and feelings at the end of each day? I do! For years, journaling has been my outlet. My notebooks were full of rants, dreams, raw emotions, and half-finished thoughts. It was cathartic — but it often left me stuck. I could pour everything onto the page,…
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When Doing Everything Right Still Feels Wrong: Learning to Deal with Disappointment
Have you ever done everything “right” — updated your CV, reached out to people, sent countless emails — and still, nothing changed? How did that feel? This week, while scrolling through social media, I came across a video of a young man sharing his frustrations. He had done it all: rewritten his CV, contacted recruiters,…
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Finding Joy in the Middle of the Grind
Why do we act like happiness is something we have to earn? For years, I believed joy was something you celebrated after the work was done. I was wrong. Recently, I was telling a friend about all the things I had planned — the goals, the deadlines, the next big steps. She listened patiently as…
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When the Lens is Cracked, Even the Sun Looks Dangerous!
“When the lens is cracked, even the sun looks dangerous.” I said this to a friend earlier this week after she shared a frustrating experience with someone we both know. On the surface, this person’s reaction to a simple disagreement seemed extreme—but as we peeled back the layers, something became clear. I told my friend,…
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When Perfection Silences You: Choosing Progress Instead.
For too long, I let perfection silence me. Today, I choose progress. I choose to tell the stories that have lived inside me—raw, unfinished, and real. There Are Stories I’ve Never Told Not because I didn’t believe in them, but because I was waiting for them to be perfect. As a child, I was an…
Koya Nkrumah 