your inner world is magical and valuable

My years in school can be summarized by me feeling like a martian, pretty much most of the time. All I ever wanted was to fit in, to find someone whose creativity and mind worked in sync with mine. But more than anything, I wanted to be understood. I remember countless presentations, assignments, and projects where my ideas were dismissed and deemed invaluable. And when I dared to bring my inner world into the outer world, I was often met with confusion, strange looks, or even harsh criticism.

Now, at 20 years old, I'm reflecting on those years in school and my experiences as a young person in this world. I'm finally confronting the deep hurt I've carried all these years and the subconscious programming that has quietly steered my life to this day. It has led to a deeply ingrained belief that my ideas are unworthy and invaluable.

I am just now tending to my inner self, my inner child, holding her close and recognizing the power of her ideas—the power to think differently. I'm actively giving her the space she needs to bring those ideas to life, to create, to dream, to think. And most importantly, I'm allowing her to stop worrying about whether others will understand. Often, they won't. But now I know that I wasn't put on this planet to be understood. I'm not here to lay my ideas, dreams, and thoughts on a plate for approval or validation. No one holds that power over my inner world. My inner world exists, and it is powerful and worthy in its own right. Just as a garden exists in its beauty, with no one questioning the worth of each flower, my ideas are valuable and worthy simply by existing—whether they are big or small, finished or unfinished, manifested into the physical world or not.

I am practicing honoring my young creative self because only I have the true, meaningful power to do so. I'm giving her space, opening up her world without limits, without the need for acknowledgment, praise, or understanding from others. Creativity is what I am; it flows through every cell in my body and it comes to me as natural as breathing itself. It permeates everything I do and see. By recognizing each of my ideas, each of my creations, and all manifestations of my inner world as inherently worthy, I now see that I am, and have always been worthy too.