Recently I had been having trouble in my journey, I had been working hard for a couple months, going to the gym consistently, keeping up with my DDR practice, saving money, just overall killing it in general. But the mere mortals at my feet weren’t worshiping me yet! In my eyes I had changed almost everything about me, I’d started and KEPT doing solid good work for longer than I’d ever been able to keep it up. And it seemed like absolutely nobody noticed. My boyfriend wasn’t treating me any different, my boss never said anything about my huge biceps, the boys on discord never commented about anything different about me either. What’s even the point.

Then something incredibly strange happened to me. I was at work, and some lady who I BARELY know in passing said something to me. She worked at the front desk of one of my customer’s office, we probably had 4 sentences exchanged between the two of us ever. She was talking to a coworker about her gym routine, then she turned and looked at me and said “I’ve seen you at the gym”. I hadn’t ever seen her, I never once thought about her in my entire life after she had left my field of vision. This practical stranger SAW me. I instantly felt a sense a relief come over me. Holy shit. . . I’m not invisible.

If some stranger I’ve never talked to about anything significant can recognize me and see the effort I’m putting in, how many others are there? countless strangers who see you and recognize you every day and say nothing about it? THEY ALL SEE. It’s more than strangers too. Do you really believe that a stranger can see the work I’m putting in, but not my close friends or colleagues? I promise, they see it, even if they never say anything. And the truth is most will never say anything. Either they’re too embarrassed with how they compare, or they just don’t want to inflate your ego anymore than they already think it is.

This experience was insane to me, but it was exactly what I needed, it reminded me something very important. Nobody can actually hide anything about themselves. It shines through in everything you do. People can see the kind of person you are in your eyes. They see all the small things you believe about yourself that inform all the actions you take. So when you go out in the world, who do you want the strangers to notice? The loser who does nothing good for himself? The constant consumer, watching episode after episode just so you can forget about how much you hate yourself for another 23 minutes? Or do you want them to notice the guy who’s out here, doing what it takes, not his best. even when he feels like shit? Make your choice, because I PROMISE they will know, probably better than you do. You are not invisible and you can’t hide. Come out of the shadows and be all you can.