It's Not Safe to Be Me: Preface
A Note on Safety and Identity
When I say, “It’s not safe to be me,” I’m speaking to a deeply personal kind of safety, a mental and emotional space where being myself felt impossible, even dangerous. It’s about a psychological breakdown that left me untethered from myself, buried alive, beneath the weight of life’s circumstances.
But I want to acknowledge something important: the phrase ‘It’s not safe to be me’ holds broader, often more literal truths for others. In a world where systemic discrimination, violence, and oppression are daily realities, this phrase takes on a wholly different and harrowing meaning for too many people.
I respect and honor those truths, and I recognize that my story exists within a different context. My hope in sharing it is to contribute to the larger conversation about identity and reclamation and about the ways we all navigate what it means to feel safe, whole, and free to exist as ourselves.
Thank you for reading and for allowing me to share this part of my life with you. Through this series, I hope we can find common ground in our shared humanity, even as we honor the distinct challenges we each face.
Here’s the entire series:
With much respect and gratitude,
- Marie