Reine Sobre Mim Apr 2026

For years, I lived as a subject in the kingdom of others. I handed the scepter to expectation, to the gaze of the crowd, to the loud voices that told me who I should be. I learned to curtsy before approval, to measure my worth by the applause of a room that was never truly mine. In that court, I was a servant—polite, accommodating, exhausted. I built altars to "should" and burned my own desires as offerings.

There is a Portuguese word, saudade , that has no perfect translation. It is the longing for something that may never return. But sobre mim is the opposite of saudade —it is the presence of claiming what is here, now. It is the refusal to live in the ghost of a past self or the mirage of a future one. The queen does not rule over what was or what might be. She rules over this breath, this choice, this moment. reine sobre mim

Sovereignty over the self is not tyranny. It is not the cold isolation of a monarch who rules alone. On the contrary, a true queen knows that her strength lies in the delicate art of boundaries. She can say yes to love without saying no to herself. She can welcome others into her kingdom without handing them the keys to her soul. For years, I lived as a subject in the kingdom of others