The things that hurt you, that caused you pain do not define you. Nothing that broke you, caused you the most intense damage, deserves the right to define who you are. They are things that happened to you, that evolved you as a person that changed you, but they still do not get the right define your beautiful, brilliant soul which contains a tiny universe as vast as the one you see as endless in the night sky.

What does define you is your survival, your ability to have experienced terrible things and still, found it inside yourself to survive, to have the kind of courage so many would not dream of, to grow wings where yours had been taken and cut down. You are made of beautiful, incredible, impossible things and your trauma does not get to trick you into believing that it is the only thing about you that matters.

The person who you were before damage came for you, that person is long gone and they will not be coming back, but remnants of them remain. Together the damage and the past before it have made you a brand new human, a stronger human, a better human.

You have forged yourself. From the very womb of your sadness, from the womb of your old self, you have come out, borne of heartache and pain. So no. After all that fighting you have done, your trauma does not get to define you, my dear heart.

You are whole despite it. A better, braver, stronger you in every single way.

And believe me, the universe is proud of you, you are fulfilling your purpose here in every single way.