I Got Boundaries - Young People Schoolin’ Us About Mental Health

It is hard to speak about it but I have battled with my own mental health since I was about 4 years old. It was always chalked up as me being too sensitive about things but my inability to cope was off the charts, even some 45 years ago. Never consistently seeking professional help, I suppressed emotions of anxiety and depression for almost 3 decades eventually meeting several ill fated dooms with feelings that I had certainly lost my mind. I would end up in jobs, business ventures and personal situations that would all meet this same explosive end. Trying to get that bag, move up on that corporate ladder, keep that man, turned me into a basket case of sorts, a vessel of shattered pieces. I had no boundaries. I was an addictive people pleaser and a magnet to users and abusers. 
So when tennis phenomenon, Naomi Osaka, stepped out during the French Open, earning an already $77 million bag and said that she was not going to be doing press it meant everything to me. “I am not speaking.” “No price can change my mind.” Of course I’ve never had such high stakes to set boundaries but she showed my daughter what I have never been strong enough to show her and that is “worth”, your boundaries, your mental health is more important than any monetary amount. Baby girl you are allowed to stop. You are not the mule of the earth. This is especially prevalent to my  sistas filled with melanin. My grandmother didn’t do it. My mother didn’t do it. I didn’t do it but you can say “no”. 
A young Black Asian girl taught my 49 year old self that “I got boundaries” and it’s never to late to set them. So proud.