What can I say, the struggle is real.
There are things in life we don’t figure out in our first ten years. Or twenty. Sometimes, the truth about who we are doesn’t show itself until we’ve survived enough storms to know what we’re made of. And when I look back, when I scroll through the raw chapters of my life, one truth keeps returning like a constant echo: power is not something I found. Power is something I am.
The dictionary tries to define it as the ability to direct or influence but that falls flat. It doesn’t speak to what I’ve lived. It doesn’t capture the heat, the weight, or the will of what power really is when you’re born into a world that hopes you never discover it.
I came to understand this through someone I respect deeply someone rooted in community, someone always focused on economics, equity, and truth. And when they spoke of power, something inside me sparked. I felt it in my bones. A chill that turned into clarity. Power runs through my veins. It always has. But like so many of us, I had to come through struggle to recognize it.
Imagine this.
You’re a child. They tell you “No,” but something in your spirit says “yes.” They tell you “Don’t,” but your soul commands you: “do.” You’re under pressure, attack, stress, and scarcity but somehow, you keep moving. Not because it’s easy, but because something inside refuses to break. That’s the kind of power I’m talking about. Not the kind that comes with a title, but the kind that awakens when the world says stop and you choose to go.
This kind of power is born in resistance.
It’s shaped by being surrounded not by one challenge but by layers of them. Social. Financial. Emotional. Historical. And still, you rise. That’s the miracle. That’s the science.
Because life becomes a lab. Every experience becomes data. You watch how you react when the rules shift, when nothing makes sense, when you're left to improvise. You learn to study yourself not to survive, but to understand your power under pressure. That’s where growth lives. That’s where legacy begins.
And the decisions that test you most? They often cost. Time. Money. Comfort. But the price of ignoring that quiet truth inside you? That could cost your soul.
That’s why presence is power.
Not presence as in visibility. Presence as in awareness. Strategy. Willingness to stay. In the moment. In the difficulty. In the building. Power lives in the decision to remain grounded while reaching forward.
Feeding our families, reclaiming our wellness, protecting our peace these are not luxuries. They are necessities. If something threatens that, we don’t shut down. We evolve. We innovate. We protect. We grow anyway.
So, what do you do when the system around you was designed to shrink you? Do you fold yourself into silence? Or do you expand until the container breaks?
Because if growth is denied… then what is freedom?
Power, to me, is resistance to oppression.
It’s not an award. It’s not a position. It’s a practice. It is daily defiance rooted in truth. It is the calm clarity of a woman who has nothing left to fear. The silent vision of a scientist who won't stop until the formula is found. The grounded elegance of a king who understands wealth is more than gold. The still gaze of a ruler who commands by presence, not panic.
It’s the strength to rise when history says stay down.
It’s legacy in motion.
And it lives in me.