The Day I Chose Myself – A Soulful Reflection by Briony McKenzie
I sat in my cubicle, staring at the blinking cursor on my screen, drowning in emails I didn’t care about. The hum of the office printer. The artificial glow of fluorescent lights. The weight of a life I hadn’t consciously chosen pressing against my chest.
How did I get here?
I knew the answer.
I fell into it. Top-tier corporate law. The kind of career that made parents proud and dinner party introductions impressive. The kind of job that came with polished heels, structured blazers, and expensive exhaustion.
Every day, I went to lunch with colleagues I had nothing real to say to, nodding along to conversations that drained me. I smoothed down my pencil skirt—tight, stiff, a costume. I was itching. Itching in my own skin.
I cried in the bathroom more times than I could count. Silent sobs, locked in a stall, trying to muffle the sound because strong women don’t break down at work. But I wasn’t breaking down. I was waking up.
I had everything. The apartment, the job, the partner.
And yet, I had nothing.
Nothing that felt real. Nothing that felt mine.
I had spent years mastering the art of being who I was supposed to be. But I had no relationship with my own soul. No intimacy with my own desires.
The part of me that wanted more—the untamed, hungry, fire-in-her-belly part—had been silenced for years. But she was done waiting.
I had a choice.
I could stay—stay comfortable, stay admired, stay safe.
Or I could listen to the whisper that had turned into a scream: This isn’t your life. This isn’t you.
I chose me.
I handed in my resignation. I walked out of that law firm and into the unknown. It was terrifying. It was exhilarating. It was freeing.
But the real transformation didn’t happen the moment I left.
It happened when I learned to trust myself again.
To trust my own instincts.
To trust that my dreams weren’t foolish.
To trust that I didn’t have to settle for what I thought I could get—I was allowed to want more.
This wasn’t just about quitting my job. It was about undoing years of conditioning that told me to be “reasonable.” To be “grateful.” To not ask for too much.
For the first time in my life, I stopped negotiating with my own dreams.
I started building something that was mine. A business that wasn’t just about success but about alignment. Something that felt like an extension of my soul. Something that made me feel alive.
And as I built, I healed.
With every risk I took, I uncovered new layers of myself.
With every bold decision, I rewired the part of me that had been told to stay small.
With every step forward, I came home—to my body, my voice, my truth.
Because that’s what this journey is: a homecoming.
Every day, we get to choose:
• Does this diminish me, or does this enlarge me?
• Is this my dream, or is this someone else’s?
These questions became my compass.
And let this be a reminder:
You can reinvent yourself.
You don’t owe anyone a version of you that no longer feels true.
You only owe your highest self.
Trust that what you seek is seeking you.
You don’t need to see the whole path. Just the next step.
Your life is the greatest creative act you will ever make.
And you get to sculpt, paint, and refine it—again and again.
You are not lost. You are on your way home.