I Said Yes, So I Could Learn When to Say No

Real Talk Vol. 5

Say yes to the dance with a stranger.

Yes to the spontaneous road trip with your girls.

Yes to midnight fast-food runs and laughing until your stomach hurts.

Yes to being kissed in the rain, even if it feels cliché.

Yes to figuring it out as you go.

Because life? It’s meant to be lived.

And some of the best memories don’t come from planning, they come from saying “screw it, why not?”

I said yes to a lot of things that didn’t make sense on paper.

Some wild. Some reckless. Some I’ll never repeat.

But I don’t regret those yeses.

They taught me who I am.

They gave me stories.

They helped me grow.

But at some point…

“Yes” stopped being freedom.

I started saying it to avoid conflict.

To keep people comfortable.

To quiet my own intuition.

Yes to people I didn’t trust.

Yes to situations that drained me.

Yes to relationships that broke me.

That’s when “yes” became a cage.

So I changed.

I stopped people-pleasing.

I stopped over-explaining.

I stopped saying yes just because I could.

Now? I say yes when it’s aligned.

When it’s expansive. When it’s mine.

And I say no when it costs me my peace, my energy, or my self-respect.

So go ahead, say yes to life.

Try things. Fall. Laugh. Make a little chaos.

But when you’ve learned who you are and what you deserve?

Say no like your life depends on it.

Because sometimes, it does.

–C