Work Hard & Be Quiet

Alcohol had, for a long time, been a crutch and an escape, the doorway to the nights where I would find myself trapped in a cycle of self-destructive indulgence. I remember those days vividly, the haze of booze drowning my insecurities and allowing the alter ego to take over. My intoxicated self would spend hours, with unsteady hands and slurred speech, spewing word vomit across my Instagram Stories feed. At that point, it was all about instant gratification, the thirst for recognition and the desperate need to be seen. It had stopped being about art and creativity and had become an incessant cry for help. Those blurry nights weren’t pretty, but they were honest. I was a broken man, searching for validation from the world to fill the void in my soul. In those drunken stupors, I felt like a king, basking in the adulation of the faceless masses. It was a delusion that I wore like a shield, warding off the demons of self-doubt that haunted me. The morning light would shine on my regretful visage as I tried to piece together fragments of memories from the night before. The headache was relentless, and the questions – always those endless questions – pressed against my mind, demanding answers. I was a man hanging on to the edge of the abyss, consumed by the darkness of my addictions. But those days are gone, swept away by the winds of change that heralded a new beginning. I’ve been able to shed that weight and emerge from the chrysalis of addiction, renewed and transformed. Now, as I approach each moment, I’m empowered by the realization that there’s immense power in working hard and being quiet. The world doesn’t need to know my every thought, my every move. I’ve learned that there’s strength in silence. I’ve been building from the ground up, brick by brick, laying the foundation of a life that’s true to who I am – raw and unapologetically authentic. My experiences, my victories, my failures – they’ve all played a part in molding the man that stands before you today.