You Already Won: The Rest Is Extra Credit

Before you had a name,

Before you had a body,

Before you ever opened your eyes or asked what the hell your purpose was…

You won.

Out of 6 million eggs in your mother’s body,

And hundreds of trillions of sperm cells your father had stored in his,

Somehow, you were the one that made it.

You.

The chaotic, emotional, opinionated, slow-blooming, heartbreak-surviving, music-obsessed, self-doubting masterpiece that you are.

You are the outcome of the most statistically absurd miracle in the known universe.

Let that sit for a second.

You're not behind.

You're not late.

You're not a failure.

You're just so ridiculously rare that every other version of life that could’ve happened… didn’t.

Not the taller you. Not the cooler you. Not the one who skipped middle school trauma or got a head start on their healing.

Just you.

Exactly as you are.

A living, breathing glitch in the matrix.

You were never promised ease.

You were promised existence.

And you cashed in on it in

So no, you might not win the lottery.

You might not marry your soulmate on the first try.

You might not get the dream job or the dream body or the dream life without a few detours, breakdowns, and nights spent talking to the ceiling.

But you already beat the odds once.

And that means nothing, nothing, after this is off-limits.

Not success.

Not peace.

Not healing.

Not love.

Not forgiveness.

Not reinvention.

Not joy.

You don’t need to be the best.

You don’t need to have it all figured out.

You just need to remember:

You were never supposed to be here.

But you are.

Everything else?

That’s all bonus content.

Written by Ajani Brathwaite