By Kim Brassor

One Voice Evolving: Better You, Better World

Thanksgiving is a big day for some of us (and not because of the turkey.)

For many, it’s walking straight into a house where the air is thick with history. Old roles. Old expectations.

Old versions of you that no longer fit but somehow still get handed back like name tags.

So let’s play the “What if” game:

WHAT IF you weren’t afraid of being judged at that table, what would you finally say out loud?

You know exactly what I mean.

That one sentence that sits like a stone in your throat. The truth you swallow between passing the mashed potatoes and pretending you’re “doing great. The thing you don’t voice because you don’t want to crack the veneer of “holiday harmony.”

Because you don’t want to be called dramatic. Or sensitive. Or “the one who ruins Thanksgiving.”

Let’s play another round:

WHAT IF your silence isn’t keeping the peace. It’s keeping you small. It’s not keeping you safe to shrink. It’s enabling bad behavior?

Thanksgiving has a sneaky way of resurrecting the past—the family hero, the identified patient, the peacekeeper role, the fixer, the quiet one everyone talks over, the “be agreeable” mask you learned to wear so young you forgot it wasn’t your face.

But the truth?

You’ve outgrown all of that. And you don’t need to shrink to fit back in. So let’s flip the script today.

So WHAT IF judgment wasn’t a threat from family, from old stories, from anyone…what would you finally let yourself say?

A boundary?

A truth?

A “no”?

A “that’s not funny”?

A “please don’t talk to me that way”?

A simple, quiet, honest:

“I’m not who I used to be.”

You don’t have to say it out loud at the table. You don’t have to make a scene. You don’t have to be perfect. Just don’t hide it from yourself anymore.

Even a whispered truth can set you free. Your voice deserves a seat at that table, too.

Tell me, what truth did you carry into that house? (You can leave it here without explaining a thing.)

And listen to yourself because your children are.

—Kim

PS-you can still catch the replay of Home For the Holidays HERE.