Lately, I’ve been wondering…

How many versions of us actually exist?Am I the same person with everyone I meet?Or does each person know a different version of me?

And if that’s true…

does anyone really know the real me?

Sometimes I think we’re all a little bit of an enigma.

Not because we’re hiding.But because every relationship quietly shapes the version of ourselves that it sees.

My parents know one me.

My closest friends know another.

My patients meet a doctor.

My family sees a daughter, a mother, a wife.Social media knows the version I choose to share.

And somewhere behind all those versions…there is simply me.

The one who sits quietly with her thoughts.The one who doesn’t have to explain herself.The one who doesn’t have to perform.

The strange part is…

most of us never create these versions deliberately.

We do it so we’ll be accepted.

So we’ll be understood.

So we’ll be liked.

Without even realizing it, we begin adjusting ourselves.

A little quieter here.

A little stronger there.

A little funnier.

A little wiser.

A little less emotional.

Over the years, those tiny adjustments become second nature.

Until one day…we pause and wonder,

“Who am I when no one is watching?”

And as if emotional masks weren’t enough…we’ve also become experts at wearing physical ones.

Makeup.

Filters.

Perfect lighting.

Perfect angles.

There is absolutely nothing wrong with wanting to look beautiful.

Beauty is joyful.

Beauty is art.

But sometimes I wonder…are we enhancing who we are…or hiding who we are?

Perhaps that’s why authenticity feels so refreshing.It doesn’t ask us to be perfect.It simply asks us to stop pretending.

The older I grow, the more I realise something rather unexpected.Being authentic is so much easier.There are no scripts to remember.

No image to maintain.

No versions to keep track of.

Just yourself.

And maybe…that’s one of the quiet gifts of growing older.

Not the white hair.

Not the wrinkles.

But the freedom they seem to bring.

The freedom to finally say,

“This is who I am.”

Take it or leave it

 And somehow…that feels far more beautiful than being liked for someone I was never meant to be.

— Suvi’s Scribbles