Mental Wellness & Suicide Awareness

12/21/2025

12/21/2025

12/21/2025

12/21/2025

12/21/2025

12/21/2025

And … in the middle of a conversation a phrase that creates a mental pause and honestly a check out for me… as in…. Not going to invest a whole lot of time into this…. I Just let it settle between us… with a smile and the comfort of knowing who I AM.

I get told I’m “a lot.”

I nod.
Because yes,
I am.

I feel deeply.
I care out loud.
I notice the things most people miss.
I ask questions that don’t come with small talk warnings.
I show up fully,
not halfway,
not dimmed.

I don’t do
surface-level well.
I don’t pretend not to know what I know.
I don’t shrink to keep the room comfortable.

If that makes me “a lot,” then good.
It means
I’m alive,
engaged,
and honest.
It means I bring
energy,
intention,
and depth into spaces that are used to playing it safe.

I’m not too much.
I’m just not for everyone.
And I’m perfectly okay with that.

Because the right people don’t experience me as overwhelming.

They experience me as refreshing.
As real.
As someone who makes the room more interesting just by being in it.

So yes, I’m a lot.
And I’m done apologizing for it.

And I take a slow steady inward breath and remind myself..

“You’re not too much. You’re just asking the wrong people to hold you.”

The End
🩷Barb

12/21/2025

12/21/2025