The playful period where we allow ourselves to be without limits or fears, simply because no one has told us yet that being ourselves is wrong. No one has filled our head with a restrictive narrative; no one has locked us away. It's the stage where we are freer than we could have ever imagined. We expose our vulnerability, unafraid to show ourselves defenseless and naked before others, as we are not yet afraid of judgment. It's the time when our dreams have not yet been tainted by the fears and limitations of 'reality.' This is where, being our purest selves, brimming with creativity, we embark on a challenging transition.

Even though we still dream and occasionally let our heads be in the clouds, we no longer show ourselves as easily. A division begins to emerge within us; we hide parts we believe others may not like. We create masks for society, our parents, and friends. We become so many faces that we lose track of who we are. It may seem like falsehood, but this stage focuses on exploring to live experiences that allow us to constitute ourselves, to see all our facets. In the midst of this inner division, link by link, delicate chains are being built.

This is where we begin to deal with the bindings that leave war scars. We cling to versions of ourselves that once generated happiness, chaining ourselves to moments, people, and places. We surrender our freedom to a false idea constructed about how life "should" be. We become rigid and controlling individuals, unaware that we can only control our attitude towards life. We close ourselves off to the magic of allowing ourselves to be surprised, losing confidence that life works for us. We become prisoners of our minds and their expectations. The rigidity of our chains eventually turns them into armor.

The rigidity of our chains ends up forming a strong and protective armor to prevent the world from touching us, shield us from all harm, and conceal our true identity. This armor becomes our second skin, so uncomfortably cozy that we forget how freedom feels. Heavy and limiting, it convinces us that it's safer not to dream, anchoring us to circumstances that make us victims. It makes us believe we need it, overlooking that in protecting us from the bad, it also blocks the good. At times, we catch glimpses of happiness, but it doesn't feel authentic without a willingness to be vulnerable, love wholeheartedly, and pursue dreams without fear. Few things can break the armor, and one of them is unconditional and crazy love, entering without warning, dismantling the protection, and leaving us with the lesson that putting the armor back on is not an option.

In the midst of pain and the broken pieces of the armor, surrounded by debris and walking on the ashes of what we once were, we allow ourselves to reconstruct a new self. A lighter, wiser, dreamier, and more playful version that relishes the freedom of simply BEING without apologizing to others. We allow ourselves to fly again, to dream.