To Those Still Fighting

To the ones still showing up every day to a place that’s slowly wearing you down — I see you.

Maybe it’s an office, a classroom, a warehouse, a kitchen, or even your own living room if you work from home. The walls look different, but the feeling is the same.

You’re holding everything together for people who don’t see how much it costs you. You’re the one who stays late, fills in, takes the hits, and keeps things running because it’s easier than watching everything fall apart.

You tell yourself it’ll get better. That this is just a phase. That you can’t afford to leave.

But deep down, you know it’s not just about the work — it’s about the weight of being unappreciated, unseen, and stretched beyond what’s human.

Please know this: staying doesn’t make you weak. It means you’re surviving the best way you can.

But survival isn’t meant to be permanent. You deserve more than just “making it through.”

If you can’t walk away yet, start protecting the parts of yourself that the job doesn’t deserve.

Guard your energy. Speak kindly to yourself. Set small boundaries and keep them sacred.

Healing doesn’t always start with quitting — sometimes it starts with saying, “I can’t keep giving everything to this.”

You don’t have to break to be free. You just have to start choosing yourself, one piece at a time.

To everyone still stuck there: you’re not invisible. You’re just not done becoming who you’re meant to be yet.

-Bethany