Today made me stop for a moment.
International Women’s Day has a way of doing that. It arrives quietly, but it carries a strange emotional weight. It’s not just another day on the calendar. Somehow it becomes an invitation to pause and look at yourself, not the version of you that is rushing through daily life, answering emails, making plans, checking off tasks, but the deeper version. The one that has been shaped by years of experiences, risks, disappointments, victories, and quiet moments of courage.
And today I found myself thinking about the woman I am.
But even more than that, I found myself thinking about the woman I’ve become.
Because when I look back at the past few years of my life, I realize how much they changed me. How much they stretched me beyond what I thought I was capable of. And how many of those moments were things I never saw coming.
Life rarely prepares us for the moments that end up shaping us the most.
Some of the things that changed me were exciting. Some of them were difficult. Some of them were deeply uncomfortable.
But all of them, in their own quiet way, carved out the person I am today.
And when I think about the last three years of my life, I realize something very simple.
They were the years when I slowly became myself.
The Decision That Took Me Somewhere Far From Home
Three years ago, I felt something inside me that I couldn’t quite explain.
It wasn’t dissatisfaction. It wasn’t unhappiness. My life was moving forward the way many lives do: predictably, responsibly, in the direction that made sense on paper.
But somewhere deeper inside me, there was this quiet, persistent curiosity.
A question I couldn’t ignore.
What would happen if I left everything familiar for a while?
Not forever. Just long enough to see who I might become somewhere else.
For reasons I couldn’t fully articulate at the time, I felt drawn to London.
Maybe it was the idea of the city itself, this massive, historic place filled with people from every corner of the world. Maybe it was the feeling that being somewhere completely unfamiliar would force me to rely on myself in a new way.
Or maybe it was simply the instinct that something important about my life was waiting for me there.
So I went.
I packed my life into a temporary chapter and moved to a city where I knew no one. A city where the streets, the accents, the rhythms of daily life were all unfamiliar.
At first, everything felt overwhelming.
But slowly, something remarkable happened.
I began to feel independent in a way I had never experienced before.
There is something deeply transformative about standing in a place where nothing around you is familiar, and realizing that you are capable of navigating it anyway.
It forces you to trust yourself.
It forces you to listen to your instincts.
And it quietly teaches you that you are far more capable than you once believed.
Learning What Writing Really Means
While I was in London, I worked as a journalist.
And that experience changed my relationship with writing forever.
Before that, writing had always been something academic for me. Something connected to my studies in English literature. Essays, analyses, theoretical ideas.
But journalism is different.
Journalism demands something more raw, more honest.
You sit in front of a blank page, and suddenly there is no professor grading you, no formula guiding you. There is only your voice and your ability to translate your thoughts into something meaningful.
And for the first time, I realized something important.
Writing isn’t about perfection.
It’s about courage.
It’s about trusting your perspective enough to put it into words.
I had no AI tools helping me refine sentences. No previous professional experience telling me whether what I was writing was good or not.
Just curiosity.
Just persistence.
Just the quiet belief that if I kept writing, eventually I would find my voice.
And slowly, I did.
The Unexpected Thing That Made Me Feel Most Like Myself
But London also revealed something about me that I had never fully understood before.
Photoshoots.
At first it was simply something creative I wanted to try. A way of capturing the experience of being in a city that felt magical to me.
But the more I did it, the more I realized that these moments meant something deeper.
Standing somewhere beautiful.
Choosing an outfit that expresses who you are in that moment of your life.
Working with a photographer who captures not just how you look, but how you feel.
There is something powerful about freezing a moment in time intentionally.
Since that first experience, photoshoots have become a tradition in my life.
A promise I made to myself.
Every birthday, I celebrate my life with a photoshoot.
Hair done.
Makeup done.
A dress that feels like the version of myself I am that year.
Since then I’ve done six photoshoots.
Four in London.
One in Budapest.
Two in Israel.
Most of them alone.
Just me and the photographer.
And those moments have become something far more meaningful than pictures.
They became milestones.
Little markers along the path of becoming myself.
The Quiet Lesson of Listening to My Body
The past few years also taught me something I didn’t expect.
How to slow down.
For most of my life, I was someone who believed in pushing forward. In working harder. In chasing goals with determination.
But life has a way of reminding us that we are human.
I suffer from migraines more often than I would like.
For a long time, I saw them only as an obstacle. Something frustrating that interrupted my plans.
But slowly, I began to understand something different.
My body wasn’t betraying me.
It was communicating with me.
It was telling me to rest when I had pushed too far.
To pause when I had forgotten to listen to myself.
And learning to respect that message has changed the way I live.
Because strength isn’t only about persistence.
Sometimes the greatest strength lies in knowing when to stop.
A Letter to the Woman I Was Three Years Ago
If I could sit across from the version of myself who stood at the beginning of this journey three years ago, I think I would say this:
“Dear you,
Right now you feel like you’re standing at the beginning of something uncertain.
You’re excited about London, but you’re also afraid.
You’re wondering whether you’re brave enough to create a life that truly reflects who you are.
Here is what I want you to know.
You are.
You will learn how to navigate unfamiliar cities with confidence.
You will discover that independence is not about being alone, it’s about trusting your own direction.
You will learn that creativity is not something you occasionally visit.
It is something that lives inside you permanently.
You will stand in front of cameras in cities you once only dreamed about visiting.
London streets.
Budapest bridges.
Quiet corners in Israel.
And those photographs will become reminders of something beautiful.
That you chose to live fully.
That you allowed yourself to explore the world and yourself at the same time.
You will fight for the career you want.
You will become a writer not only in theory but in practice.
And slowly, without even noticing it happening, you will grow into the woman you once hoped you could become.
So trust the journey.
Trust your instincts.
And never stop believing in the life you are building.
Because one day you will look back at this moment and realize it was the beginning of everything.”
The Woman I Am Still Becoming
When I look at my life today, I feel something that is difficult to put into words.
Gratitude.
Not because everything was easy.
But because every challenge, every unexpected turn, every leap of faith contributed to the person I am today.
And if there’s one thing I’ve learned, it’s this:
We are never finished becoming.
There are still dreams waiting for us.
Still versions of ourselves we have not yet met.
And somehow, that realization doesn’t feel intimidating anymore.
It feels beautiful.
Because now I trust the journey.
And even more than that:
I trust the woman I am becoming.
