I am the culmination of generations of women who couldn't choose themselves. Women who swallowed their voices. Women who stayed. Women who sacrificed everything and called it love.

The pressure builds. For generations it builds. Until it has to pop. And when it popped in me-I found God.

Not the God of institutional religion. Not the God they taught me to fear. But a God that said: choose yourself. Choose your children. Choose authenticity.

And that choice? That's everything.