Sometimes the old story falls apart before a new one is ready to take its place.
This piece is for that strange, quiet space in between, the one no one really prepares you for.

You were never prepared for this part or how to live in this space. You were meant to stay in your roles, not question them. But now here you are, the story gone, the plot collapsed, and the old roles rejected. You find your space between the old story and whatever comes next. There is no structure, no guidance, and definitely no applause. Just stillness, and sometimes fear.  There will be a strong temptation to fill that space. We often want to reach for the nearest goal, identity or purpose. We have this need to make it neat again, to make it make sense.

What if you paused here for just a little longer though?

Before you write a new story, before you chase a new version of yourself, what if you let yourself simply be? What if this time, you didn’t perform your way into the next chapter? What if you let it rise, slow and unpolished, from the center of who you really are?

It starts by noticing what matters to you, not in theory but in the quiet of your own life. By noticing what stirs in you when no one is looking, and noticing what no longer holds your energy, and what unexpectedly lights it. We might not have a map for this space but we do have questions.

Begin with noticing what stirs in you when no one’s looking.

Noticing what no longer holds your energy, and what unexpectedly lights it.

• What kind of person feels real to me, even if I’m not there yet?
• What pulls me toward it, not out of fear or guilt, but because it feels honest?
• Where does my body feel at ease? Where does it tighten? What is it trying to say?
• If no one ever validated my choice would I still want to make it?

You don’t have to answer all of them now. You should sit with them for a while and really take in what they mean for you.

Just keep asking, keep noticing, and keep choosing the next real moment over the next polished performance. Sometimes that means sitting in the uncertainty, not as punishment, but as possibility. Being in this space of uncertainty without a script isn’t failure, it is the ground floor of becoming. So let the silence stretch a little. Let the plotless space breathe.

You’re not lost.

You’re just not following someone else’s story anymore.

And for the first time, what comes next will be yours.