Semi Secret Sophie🌙✨

06/23/2026

I have been meaning to write this for a long time.

Not because I have had nothing to say, but because I have had too much. Coming back has been strange. Quiet in some ways, loud in others. It has not been one big cinematic moment where everything suddenly made sense and I walked back into my life glowing and healed and ready to conquer the world.

It has been more like learning how to live in my own space again.

Learning how to let home be home. Learning how to make the days feel less sharp. Learning that recovery does not only happen in big revelations. Sometimes it happens when you make a little routine for yourself. Sometimes it happens when you build something silly. Sometimes it happens when you make your environment softer because you finally understand that you are allowed to need softness.

I have been working a lot, and honestly, that shift has been one of the biggest gifts in my life lately.

Starting something new has given me room to become a version of myself that is not trapped inside old expectations. I am still me, obviously. Still a little weird, still intense, still deeply committed to doing too much at all times. But I am also getting to meet myself again in a new context.

There is something really healing about being able to start over without having to erase who you were.

I have been learning new things, finding my voice again, becoming more confident in what I bring to the table, and remembering that I am capable of building a life that feels like mine. Not a life built around survival. Not a life built around trying to be less inconvenient. Mine.

Outside of work, I have been making tiny machines.

That sounds slightly unhinged when I write it out, but it is true.

I have been building little systems around my home that make life feel safer, gentler, and more manageable. Tiny screens. Smart lights. Little routines. Dashboards. Raspberry Pis. Small things that respond when I need them to respond. Things that make my space feel alive and intentional instead of just being the place where I collapse at the end of the day.

I have been making my home into something that takes care of me back.

One of my favorite things I have been working on is Moss, a tiny little creature who lives in his own cozy world. Moss is part self-care companion, part terrarium gremlin, part tiny emotional support forest creature. He is sweet and weird and very much a reflection of the kind of softness I am trying to build into my own life.

I am also slowly working on a silly cozy game in the Moss universe, because apparently I cannot just have one tiny woodland creature. There has to be lore. There have to be vines. There have to be little items to collect. There has to be a whole tiny world waiting behind a door somewhere.

That is just how my brain works, and for once, I am not trying to fight it.

I have also been putting energy into MyBirdFinder, which is exactly what it sounds like and also maybe not exactly what it sounds like. It is a little social space for bird people, weird little sightings, accidental wildlife journalism, and the kind of internet that feels more fun than exhausting.

It has been really nice to make things again.

Not because every project has to become something huge. Not because every idea has to be monetized or optimized or turned into proof that I am doing enough. Just because making things reminds me that I am here.

Making things reminds me that I have a future.

I think that is what this season has been about for me. Not becoming a brand-new person. Not pretending nothing happened. Not rushing to prove that I am okay.

Just returning to myself slowly.

Building small comforts. Taking up space in my own home. Making weird little worlds. Trying new things. Letting work challenge me in ways that feel good. Letting myself be proud of what I can do. Letting myself be alive in ways that do not always need an audience.

I am still figuring things out. I probably always will be.

But I am here.

And lately, I have been making things again.

That feels like a pretty good place to start.

xx

Soph