Freedom Day: Celebrating the Anniversary of Leaving

A NOTE BEFORE YOU READ — This article is for emotional support only. It is not medical, legal, or mental health advice. If you are in an unsafe situation, the National Domestic Violence Hotline is available 24 hours at 1-800-799-7233 or thehotline.org.

Today is America's 250th birthday.

Two hundred and fifty years ago, a group of people decided that the arrangement they were living under was no longer acceptable. That the cost of staying had exceeded the cost of leaving. That whatever came next — uncertain, frightening, without guarantee — was preferable to remaining in something that was slowly taking everything from them.

They called it independence. They threw a party. They still do.

Here is what nobody says out loud: a lot of women know exactly what that decision feels like.

Not the fireworks part. The part before. The part where you've been calculating the cost for years. The part where leaving felt more dangerous than staying, until one day it didn't. The part where you weren't sure what came next, only that what was happening couldn't continue.

The anniversary of your leaving counts too.

Maybe it was a Tuesday. Maybe nobody celebrated. Maybe you're still in the middle of it and the paperwork isn't done and it doesn't feel like freedom yet. That's allowed. Freedom is rarely loud at the beginning. Usually it's just quieter than what came before.

But it counts. The decision counts. The leaving counts. The choosing-yourself counts — even when it was messy, even when you went back, even when you're still figuring out what comes next.

We celebrate the anniversary America left England.

Yours counts too.