The last year has been fire and flood, heartbreak and breakthrough. I built a profitable Learning and Development business, reimagined Black Girl S.P.A., found love, got laid off from a six-figure role, returned to the classroom when I swore I would never go back, and cried myself to sleep more nights than I want to remember. I know now that sometimes life has to strip you bare before it clothes you in something better. But when it is happening, when the stripping is loud and the breaking is raw, it feels like everything you’ve worked for is gone.

I still remember that call. Three minutes. That is all it took for the organization I had poured nearly three years of sweat and soul into to end my role. I had built programs from the ground up, redesigned what didn’t work, and gave them my creativity and commitment. And just like that, it was over. As a single mom, losing my job was one of my deepest fears. That fear walked right up to my front door and knocked. I didn’t let them see me break, but the minute I hung up, I collapsed.

I reached out to my people, and while they were sad for me, not one of them questioned whether I would survive it. They kept saying, “I’m not worried about you, you’re going to be okay.” And they were right. I went six months without a paycheck, and not a single bill went unpaid. My daughter Wynter had the best Christmas of her little life. We never missed a meal, never missed a moment of joy. My village carried us when I thought I couldn’t walk.

That season taught me some things I will never forget. A title is not who you are. A salary is not your security. God is the source, not the company. And my man kept reminding me, “If they paid you to do it for them, you can pay yourself to do it for you.” That truth cracked something open in me.

I turned all that energy into PivotPoint Learning and Consulting. Since January, my business has already brought in almost $25,000. Real revenue. Real proof that I could build something that was mine. At the same time, I gave myself permission to stop playing small with Black Girl S.P.A. PivotPoint is my gift, but Black Girl S.P.A. is my passion. I relaunched the book club. I birthed the Black Girl Walk Club in Greenville. I thought twelve women would show up. Instead, over one hundred signed up and more than fifty sisters gathered with me at eight o’clock in the morning to walk. I stood there in tears watching these beautiful Black women show up, bright-eyed and ready, for something that was once just an idea in my journal.

Then it went bigger. A reel of that first walk went viral and suddenly hundreds more wanted in. Over three hundred new women signed up for the series. My inbox filled with messages from Black women saying thank you, saying this space was what they needed, asking how they could join. And as if God was putting His stamp on it all, right after the walk I was offered a new position with a Fortune 400 company where I get to make real impact in my community.

If it wasn’t for the breaking, I wouldn’t have found the building. If it wasn’t for the pain, I wouldn’t have discovered my purpose. The darkest nights became the birthplace of my brightest ideas. The rejection became the redirection I needed. Some days I laid in bed unable to move, and other days I poured every ounce of myself into creating. But I never stopped moving forward.

So, my sisters, hear me when I say this. Whatever storm you are in, it is not wasted. What feels like destruction is really construction. What sounds like rejection is really protection. And what feels like pain is really you giving birth to your purpose. Do not quit. Do not fold. What is meant for you is waiting just beyond the door you are tempted to close.

The pain is not punishment. The pain is purpose.