I was raised in a wonderful home filled with love, support, and faith.

Growing up in the Christian Church (Disciples of Christ), I learned early that love mattered, that community mattered, and that there was something greater than myself worth seeking and knowing. Those roots still run deeply through who I am today.

I also became very good at reading a room.

There was a version of me for church, another for family, and slightly different versions for different circles of friends. None of them were false. They were all me. I simply learned which parts of myself seemed to belong in which places.

As I moved through college and into adulthood, my spiritual curiosity grew. I began meditating, praying more deeply, reading and listening to spiritual teachers from many traditions, and asking increasingly expansive questions about God, consciousness, and this extraordinary human experience.

And through all of that exploration, I kept returning to Jesus.

What was he really teaching?

What did he understand about our relationship with God?

What if his life was more than something to admire? What if it was also an invitation to discover what becomes possible when we live in deep connection with the Divine?

I loved exploring those questions. I loved talking about them with people who were curious too. And somewhere along the way, I began to notice something:

I could speak freely about different pieces of myself in different places, yet I wasn't sure there was anywhere I allowed all of me to belong.

Eventually, an even more interesting question emerged:

Did I allow all of me to belong with me?

That question continues to change things.

I'm learning to notice when I'm choosing from my own knowing and when I'm responding to what I imagine someone else expects of me. I'm learning that I can care deeply about another person's experience without making their response the authority over mine. I'm learning to appreciate the parts of myself that learned to adapt, protect, belong, and keep me safe while gently broadening the scope of what feels safe now.

And perhaps most importantly, I'm becoming less interested in finding the finished version of myself.

Past Stephanie has always been good to Present Stephanie.

She made choices. She loved people. She learned. She adapted. She explored. She gathered every experience that brought me here.

Present Stephanie gets to choose what to do with all of that today.

And Future Stephanie?

I trust her.

She'll have experiences I haven't lived yet, information I don't have yet, and perspectives I can't possibly see from here. She can handle herself.

So I don't have to replace who I've been or construct who I'm becoming.

I get to be here.

Thankfully, I didn't call this space trueself.after-i-figure-myself-out.

Or trueself.after-i-complete-my-transformation.

Or trueself.according-to-the-five-year-strategic-plan.

I called it:

True Self. Today.

And that feels like a beautiful place to begin.