22/11/2025
Some wise words from Hayley x
Howdy, Hailey here again, with another reflection on the idea that you can’t be what you can’t see.
Lately, life has pushed me to reflect on growing up. After sitting with this for a while, I found myself thinking about how unsure I felt about myself, my brain injury, and how I felt about it all. Looking back, I wish I’d felt more confident in myself, and more okay with feeling unsure. I can see that having complex and conflicting feelings kinda comes with it.
Even now, as an adult, I still feel a whole spectrum of things about life and about my brain injury.
There’s a lot of pressure to always have it together and have a positive outlook, to be inspirational. But I think that pressure can be dangerous. It doesn’t always leave room to feel what you need to feel, or to process things in your own time.
The truth is, I now see the importance of emotional processing. Of sitting with what’s hard.
I think a big part of life is learning from mistakes and growing through them. Sometimes, what we need to see is someone being honest about the messiness.
I spent a lot of my teen years comparing myself to others, feeling like I was always behind and like I had to lie about how I really felt just to keep up. But now I know it's ok.
It’s okay to be complex.
It’s okay to have conflicting feelings.
It’s okay if you don’t feel the way others do.
