The Middle School Bitch: How One Cruel Moment Still Shapes My Creative Voice

Some wounds take decades to surface. For me, it was a single moment in middle school — a cruel comment that left a crack in my creative self-worth. Twenty years later, while working through The Artist’s Way, I realized how deeply that memory still shapes my fear of being “too much.” This essay explores the messy middle of healing: belonging, validation, and what it means to finally offer my 12-year-old self the safety she deserved.