I owe myself an apology, a deep one.
Since 1995, I have felt like I was wasting my life. I was shattered, and I wasn’t wrong to be. When someone you love leaves in the worst possible way, something breaks. For years I wondered whether you ever loved me at all.
It has been 33 years of struggle. For most of them, I looked outward, searching for someone to blame. Eventually I looked inward and found something simple: people part ways, and what I do with my life afterward belongs to me alone. No one else is holding the pen.
So I am saying sorry to myself. I’m sorry for the years I spent waiting for closure that never came. I’m sorry for treating my own worth as something another person could take away.
Today, I take it back. I am mine, and no one else is.
I hereby sign my declaration of independence.
What comes next is work. I will write code, build things, and learn something new every day. Money, name, and fame may come, and I welcome them, but the real victory is already here: I am finally choosing myself.
The past stays behind me. The keyboard is open. Let’s begin.