Written piece
Chosen to Become
Monica Rogers-Fletcher
Trinidad and Tobago
About this piece
“Chosen to Become” came from my experience of being forced to leave a professional role which shaped much of my identity. That journey later influenced my book, Be the Person You Dream of Becoming, and this poem about change, uncertainty, and becoming.
Chosen to Become
There comes a point
where staying is no longer possible.
Something feels broken
though everything still works,
It is no longer enough.
You feel it before you can explain it.
The pull forward,
and the part of you which still holds on
to what you know.
Because what you have is certain.
What lies ahead is not.
So you stand between
the comfort you know
and the uncertainty you have not yet entered.
You could stay. Nothing would collapse.
But you would remain where you no longer belong.
And you know,
this is your thread to follow.
The call comes.
And you answer it.
So you leave
even as part of you wants to stay.
Not because it is easy,
but because it becomes clear
that staying will cost you more.
You leave without a path,
without a way back.
And for a while
there is nothing to hold on to.
Nothing is sure to remain.
And once you leave,
what was can no longer hold you.
What you are to build requires more of you.
A different version of you.
And when it begins to work,
it feels like somewhere you could stay.
Familiar, like you belong.
Then you see
this is not the end,
just another place you will outgrow.
There will be a next time, and you still have to choose.
And you will have to leave again.
Because this was never about
what you were leaving
or the pain it causes.
It was never about losing
or letting go.
But always about giving up the old
so something new could live.
And your willingness
to walk the path to becoming.