We all have moments in life that seem small at the time—but end up changing everything.
For me, that moment came in 9th grade, on what started as a perfectly ordinary afternoon. I had long hair back then, the kind that reached the middle of my back. It was my pride, my comfort blanket, my way of feeling beautiful in a world that didn’t always feel kind.
But one day, without warning, my mother took me to a barbershop and told the man behind the chair, “Cut it short. Like a boy.”
I was 14 years old. And I felt like I was being erased.
