Listen… most of my life, I’ve taken myself way too seriously.
Like—headache, heart-pounding, 10 browser tabs open, still rehearsing my presentation in the shower serious.

Somewhere along the way, I started believing that stress meant I was doing something right. Something important.

 If I wasn’t stretched thin and secretly spiraling, I felt like I wasn’t pushing hard enough. So I ran—full speed ahead. Toward what, though? Couldn’t tell you.

But I had the receipts:
Degrees? Got ‘em. Summa cum laude? Did that too.
But graduating with honors didn’t delete Sallie Mae. And not once has a therapy client said,“Hey, before we get started… could you fax me your transcript?”

Chile… turns out, greatness was already built into my DNA.

And like most high-achieving, over-functioning Black women, I didn’t even know there were cheat codes to access that kind of understanding.

🧠 Play Is the Cheat Code

Fortunately, through my own healing journey and research, I finally discovered what neuroscience had been trying to say all along:
Play is where knowledge, wisdom, and understanding unlock (with the least amount of effort).

 Get this… it takes 400 repetitions to form a new neural pathway—
unless it happens through play. Then it only takes 10 to 20.

Excuse me?!
I’ve been out here burning through highlighters and hemorrhaging sleep…When I could’ve been dancing, laughing, and learning faster?

Girl. Please.

🗣 True Story: I Was Fluent… Until I Wasn’t

When I was little, I spoke Spanish fluently. Why?
Because I played with the kids in my mostly Latino neighborhood who spoke Spanish. No textbooks. No homework. Just hide-and-seek, jokes, and juice boxes.

Then we moved to the Southside of Houston so I could attend a top-tier Vanguard high school—first of its kind, right in the heart of the hood. And listen—I was feeling myself as a teenager.

We talkin’ the real Southside: Black excellence everywhere, mixtapes on repeat, and H-Town legends in the background—Lil’ Keke, Lil’ Flip, Fat Pat… It was a full-on masterclass in Black culture at its finest.

But the play? That stopped. And so did the Spanish.

Years later, I tried studying Spanish in school for like eight whole years.
You know what I got out of it?

I can read a menu and pronounce “quesadilla” correctly, but that’s about it. The fluency? Gone.

🔁 Performance Doesn’t Stick—Play Does

The difference was simple:
Child-me learned through fun.
Teenage/Grown-me learned through pressure.

Pressure leads to cramming and dumping. overachieving and over-functioning. I’ve officially stopped working on being ‘accomplished.’ Now? I’m working on being present..

What if your worth was never in your grind, your GPA, or your glowing resumé…

But in your presence, your peace, and your ability to laugh from your belly again?