M.J Raven

I Left Everything Behind at 23 — Here’s What I Learned Starting Over. AI-Generated.

The morning I boarded a bus with nothing but a backpack and a dog-eared journal, my stomach churned with equal parts terror and exhilaration. At twenty‑three, the life I had carefully assembled felt like a skin that no longer fit: a corporate job with a title that looked impressive on paper but drained me dry, a relationship that had become more routine than romance, a town where the same streets and the same faces had begun to feel like walls closing in. I told myself that leaving was reckless, immature, irresponsible. I also knew that if I didn't leave then, I might never find out who I could be if I stepped outside of everyone's expectations—including my own.