Liberation Has a Cost—And I Am Not Free

Installment One: A Bloom on Scorched Earth Liberation Strategy Series

They asked me in the exit interview: “What could we have done differently?”

And even then—after all I had endured—they still expected the lesson. For free.

Requested with 20 minutes’ notice.
In a sterile room.
With an HR manager who read from prepared lines.

They mentioned the LinkedIn post.
The one that didn’t name names, but held truth wrapped in thunder. It was a mirror.
And they chose to shut the mirror down.

Even in exit, they wanted clarity without cost.
My roadmap without reckoning.
My insight without investment.

But I said: “The answer to that question? Costs.”

I was done translating pain into palatable soundbites.

Done offering clarity to institutions that chose confusion as comfort.
Done feeding systems that only knew how to extract.

I refused to be translated.
I refused to offer a final unpaid deliverable dressed as grace.
I refused to disassemble myself into teachable moments.

They sent me home that day.
Released me from duties.

But I didn’t see it as dismissal.
I saw it as divine redirection.
A sacred release.
The perfect holy closure.

Because this wasn’t just an end.
It was an initiation.
Into something sovereign.
Into the blueprint I’d already started drafting in secret.

I wasn’t removed for being a problem.

I was removed for being a reflection.

And when systems can’t hold the mirror, they shatter it.
Because they can’t confront the conditions of your brilliance—only the shadow of your obedience.

They wanted the benefit of my insight without reckoning with its source.
They wanted the balm, but not the backstory.
The remedy, but not the rage.

And I would not hand over the cure to the ones who authored the wound.

🔓 Liberation Strategy #1: Stop Giving the Cure to the Ones Who Created the Wound

You don’t owe systems your clarity.
You don’t have to teach those who refuse to listen.
You get to say no. You get to say pay me.
You get to build outside of their shadow.

Because your wisdom deserves compensation, not containment.
Your frameworks are liberatory architecture, not feedback forms.

Preserve your clarity for the ones who will treasure it.
Not the ones who tolerate it.

🌱 A Bloom Move to Try:

Think of one time you gave a system more grace than it earned.
Then ask: What would it look like to reserve that grace for yourself or your community instead?
What boundary would honor your energy as sacred?

Draw that boundary.
Call it sacred.
Let it bloom.

So Tell Me...

What truth have you been translating for systems that refuse to hear you? And what would it feel like to stop?

Write it down.
Not for them. For you. Let your clarity be a covenant, not a concession.

🌿 Tap In

✨ The Book of Blooms is now available.
A field guide. A firestarter. A sanctuary for your sovereignty.
Find your copy at bloomdontshrink.com.

✨ What came up for you?
Share your reflections with us inside The Garden.
Request an invitation. Come be witnessed.

✨ Ready for more? Read next: The Litmus Test Wasn’t for Me. It Was for Them.

The portal stays open. The bloom is not done.