By Nycel Jane Dela
“Am I enough?”
She asked the mirror, staring at a 20-year-old reflection that no longer felt like her own. Shadows of a past too heavy to carry clung to her, whispering doubts in the silence. Each tear that fell seemed to confirm what she feared most, that she was less than what she once believed.
She curled into herself, hugging a pillow that had long been her silent companion, wondering, “Do I have to go through this pain to become stronger?” The ceiling above held no answers, only the weight of her thoughts pressing down. And then, the voices came. Familiar, relentless, eager to drag her further into the abyss. They told her she was not enough. That she was worthless. That there was only one way to escape.
“Am I worth it?”
The question hung in the air, fragile but defiant.
But what if, this time, the voices won?
Not the voices of despair, but the ones she had long ignored- the quiet, persistent voices of hope, of resilience, of the people who cared for her even when she couldn’t care for herself. What if she let those voices in, just this once?
What if, instead of surrendering, she listened to the tiny whisper inside her that said, “You are more than your pain.”
Healing doesn’t happen in an instant. The journey is messy, slow, and sometimes feels impossible. But what if she gave herself the chance to see the other side of the storm? What if she let herself believe, even for a moment, that she wasn’t alone?
Because she wasn’t.
She wasn’t just a rusty penny discarded on the street–she was a story still being written, a soul still finding its way. And maybe, just maybe, she didn’t have to find all the answers right away. Maybe, all she needed to do was take one more breath, one more step, and trust that one day, she would look back and realize–she was always enough.
And that? That would be the moment the right voices finally won.
