You will build your life from the ground up, sculpting it from the very obstacles meant to break you, forging strength from years of being misunderstood, doubted, dismissed. There is no greater fire than the refusal to conform—no greater triumph than proving yourself wrong first, only to watch those who misjudged you, those who insisted there was only one path, stand corrected in your wake. My entire life, I carried the weight of their expectations, each one a futile attempt to confine me—each one shattered by my unwillingness to shrink. Not once did I feel shame. Not once did I yield to the need to blend in, to be anything less than unapologetically myself. And for that, they called me trouble and difficult. They’ll make you feel as if you had no place at their table. And without realizing, you build your own. And in the end, it was they who were left standing—watching as you took your seat at the head of it, making room for those who were once just like you.