Identity

I’m rebranding

So to speak

Or better yet, I’m de-branding

For years I have hidden my writing behind ‘brands’, more like blogs, in order to distance myself from it

To compartmentalize my life as if this part of me does not too deserve to see the light of day

As proudly as the rest of me

For years before that, I wrote under pen names, completely unable to even relate to this sacred part of myself

And for years before that, she lived locked in a sanctuary inside

A space I would visit in the darkness of the night or of early morning when the rest of the world still slept

Perhaps if I really really needed reprieve, I would hide under my bed to commune with pen and paper again

I hid something so holy as if it were a sin

My guilty pleasure

An indulgence I once thought would go to the grave with me

But I am here now, fully embodied

All of me accounted for

All of me

The car, navigation, driver, and passenger

Me

Melissa Isabel Escutia

The woman

The sister and friend

The daughter and nieta

The artist

The lover

The poet

I am shedding the layers of fluff that buffer me from the world

I am going inward to express more outwardly

Striving for more authenticity everyday

Some days will be easier than others, but this is a journey I have been on my whole life, one I will walk all the way to my grave

I am unveiling the secret me that no one ever gets to see