When Did Trauma Become a Get-Out-of-Growth Card?
Yes, trauma is real.
And no, it’s not an excuse.
We’ve reached this strange moment where naming your trauma is seen as the final step.
Where saying “I’m triggered” ends the conversation.
Where “I have trauma” means “You have to work around me now.”
But here’s the truth:
Your trauma isn’t your fault. But your healing? That’s yours to carry.
Not alone. Not in shame.
But with ownership.
Because trauma, if you let it, can do more than limit you.
It can sharpen you.
It can reveal you.
It can become the exact reason you lead, listen, and live with more depth than most people will ever touch.
But only if you work through it.
Not wear it.
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We’re not here to minimize trauma.
Some of us have clawed our way back from it.
But what we should be minimizing is the way we’ve started turning trauma into a social shield.
Something we flash like a card to avoid accountability, feedback, or even connection.
Trauma isn’t a tool for power. It’s a path through pain.
And walking it isn’t just for you.
It’s for the people you affect.
Because unprocessed trauma doesn’t just stay quietly in the background.
It leaks.
Into your leadership.
Your parenting.
Your voice.
Your silence.
Your sharpness.
Your absence.
We talk about trauma like it’s a scar. But the real story is in how it heals.
The grit. The rewiring. The way it teaches you to feel everything more precisely.
And yes, how it lets you recognize someone else’s pain faster than they can name it.
That’s not just a wound.
That’s a gift.
If you earn it.
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So no, your trauma doesn’t make you special.
It makes you responsible.
You can let it harden you. Or hollow you. Or excuse you.
Or you can let it sharpen you.
But don’t ask the world to walk around your pain
if you’re not willing to walk through it yourself.
📷 This tree is a whole metaphor…weathered, twisted, strong, and still standing.