

Michaila M.
When I love, I love with every ounce of energy I can.
There is no “halfway” in my emotional vocabulary. Happiness lifts me until I glow; grieving leaves me hollow and exhausted. I experience the world through my emotions. They serve as my compass as I navigate life, and I’m never quite sure if I’m making decisions based on thoughts or feelings. My inability to separate judgment from emotion once felt limiting, that feeling deeply made me sensitive and weaker because I’ve never figured out how to experience my emotions in anything less than extremes.
To me, empowerment feels like fullness. Feeling fully, loving fully, and breaking fully. I no longer question whether my emotions are right or wrong. Everything else stripped away, they are my identity. Feeling deeply has become my strength. When I love, I love with every ounce of energy I can. Embracing my emotions, sinking into them fully and inviting other people to come with me truly makes me feel that maybe I’ve figured it all out, even if just for a few minutes.
It’s easy to feel halfway. It’s easy to keep a part of yourself from others, and to selfishly hold on tighter when emotion threatens to overwhelm you. What’s difficult is to feel without restrictions. Each day is an opportunity to love people well, and living through opportunities to feel fully with others has become my strength, my way of loving well.