Welcome to Issue #023 of Sojourn. Each week, I share two original essays to help you slow down, reconnect, and rebuild with intention (hence ‘sojourn’), in a private community that uses travel as a path to reinvention.
THE WAKE-UP MOMENT
“Oh… she’s still asking.”
You don’t mean it in judgment.
You mean it in recognition.
Because you remember being there too.
Worrying if it was too much.
Too weird. Too soft. Too different.
Wondering if that one post, that one offer, that one truth… might cost you something you weren’t ready to lose.
So instead, you asked.
For approval. For permission. For signs you could do it your way and still belong.
And then, one day, you didn’t.
You stopped asking.
You started building.
You realized your power wasn’t in being understood by the crowd, it was in understanding yourself.
WHY WE STAY QUIET UNTIL WE DON’T
Most people aren’t afraid of failing.
They’re afraid of being seen in their full, unedited, unbranded truth.
So they build according to what’s trending.
They write what sounds polished.
They present what sounds like “success.”
And in doing so, they forget the most magnetic thing about them:
The parts they almost didn’t share.
But here’s what I’ve learned:
People don’t follow polish.
They follow presence.
They follow the one who doesn’t need to be loud because her voice already lives in her bones.
MY TURNING POINT
I used to choose my words to fit the room.
Tone it down. Make it make sense.
Say it softer, sometimes adjust my accent, so it wouldn’t shake anything loose.
But all it did was silence the part of me that was built for something deeper.
The shift came when I stopped leading with what was expected and started trusting what was true. What was me.
Not louder. Just… clear.
That’s when people started listening.
Because I wasn’t hiding behind trends, I was rooted in truth.
REINVENTION STARTS WHEN YOU STOP WAITING
We think becoming ourselves is a performance.
But maybe it’s more like a release.
→ A sentence you write without asking if it makes sense
→ A post you don’t trim for engagement
→ A decision you make that no one claps for but feels right in your cells
That’s the edge I want to live on.
The edge where your work doesn’t ask, “Is this allowed?”
It simply says, “This is mine.”
PROMPTS FOR THE WEEK AHEAD
→ Where are you still asking for permission to be someone you already are?
→ What would you build if you weren’t afraid of being misunderstood?
→ What’s one truth you haven’t said out loud because it still feels too sacred to risk?
THE REFRAME
You don’t need to be louder.
You need to be rooted.
Unmistakable.
Unshakable.
Because belonging doesn’t come from fitting in.
It comes from building a space that can hold the truth of who you are,
and letting the right people find you there.
Stop asking.
You already know.
~Ana
✨ Join Sojourn Premium to unlock the full experience — including audio voiceovers, plus access to all three libraries: The Edit (travel as reset) • The Build (slow business) • The Shelf (tools + inspirations). One login, three ways to deepen your journey.