The Day I Realized Legacy Was A Choice|Season 4 Episode 25

What if the life you're living isn't actually the life you chose?

In this deeply personal solo episode, Jen Simpson reflects on the powerful conversation with Seth Gehle and explores one life-changing question:

How much of who we are was chosen... and how much was inherited?

From trauma and survival to healing and legacy, Jen opens up about her own journey of breaking generational cycles and discovering that healing isn't about becoming someone new, it's about finally meeting the person trauma never allowed you to become.

This is a conversation for anyone who has ever struggled with people-pleasing, emotional walls, childhood wounds, family dysfunction, fear, abandonment, or the weight of carrying pain that was never theirs to carry.

If you've ever wondered whether the life you're living reflects who you truly are or simply what you inherited, this episode is for you.

In this episode, we discuss:
* Why survival is not your identity
* The difference between inherited behaviors and intentional choices
* Breaking generational cycles without abandoning the people you love
* Why boundaries are an act of wisdom, not rejection
* The truth about forgiveness, healing, and peace
* What it really means to build a legacy
* The inheritance we leave in people—not just to them
* How one decision today can change generations tomorrow

Remember:
Healing isn't becoming somebody new. Healing is finally meeting the version of yourself that trauma never allowed you to become.

If this conversation encouraged you, please like, comment, and subscribe. Your support helps us continue creating honest conversations that challenge, heal, and inspire people around the world.

Share this episode with someone who needs the reminder that their past may explain them, but it does not have to define them.

🎙️ Listen every Wednesday at 6:00 PM EST
🎧 Audio episodes available every Friday on all major podcast platforms.

Connect with Jen Simpson at 
Instagram: @therealjensimpson
Podcast Instagram: @lifesdeceitpodcast

About Life's Deceit Podcast

Life's Deceit Podcast is a global platform where truth meets healing. Through courageous conversations, powerful interviews, and authentic storytelling, we challenge the lies that keep people stuck and inspire listeners to break cycles, heal deeply, and build intentional legacies.


#LifesDeceitPodcast #JenSimpson #LegacyByChoice #HealingJourney #BreakingGenerationalCycles #TraumaHealing #MentalHealth #Faith #PersonalGrowth #Purpose #SelfHealing #FamilyHealing #Boundaries #Forgiveness #Healing #CycleBreaker #ChooseHealing #Podcast #Motivation #Inspiration

Transcript

SPEAKER_01 0:00

Hey family! Welcome back to another episode on Lice to Seat. I'm your host, Jen Simpson. How are you doing? I pray you're having a beautiful morning, afternoon, or night wherever you are in the world, whatever your time zone is, your location, the sunlight. Maybe you might be in some snow right now. I hope not. Welcome, welcome to my ready subscribers. Thank you guys for continuing to rock with me and the licensees platform. If you are new to this channel and this is the first time you are seeing my face, please, before you leave, kindly hit the subscribe button. Leave me a comment, say hello. I promise to say hey back. Today's episode, I don't know if it's really gonna be an episode or more of a conversation. A conversation where you and I just vibe together and we continue to dissect more things. Last week we had the amazing opportunity of sitting down with Seth Gyle.

SPEAKER_00 1:04

I talk about forgiveness all the time, and a lot of people say they can't forgive because that person doesn't for they don't deserve it. You know, they can never forgive, they can accept what happened, but they won't forgive them. I think we're really talking about the same things here with most people. But when when I decided that I was done living with that cloud over my head, it's very empowering, but it's also terrifying because it's terrifying because you can't blame your past anymore, right? When you accept full responsibility of your life, no matter what happens to you, you cannot say, Well, my childhood, my childhood, or this trauma. You can't say it anymore. You gotta let that thing go. And you have to accept it for what it is. It's like, okay, I made a mistake. I made a mistake, I messed up, I messed up, I'm gonna try and do better. That's what taking responsibility of your life is. Take responsibility. What's so important about that is you are removing the power that somebody else has over you. Mondo hurt me, he abused me, he's dead and gone. Even if he was alive, he's probably not thinking about me. You know, the person that hurt you is probably not thinking about you. They've moved on, they don't care about you. So why are you giving them the power over your life?

SPEAKER_01 2:17

For two episodes, and his conversation that him and I had stayed with me. It stuck with me. It brought me back to memory lane, not because of my past, but because of where I am currently in my life and the things that I'm doing. And not because of what happened to him, but because of something that he kept repeating. He kept saying it in our episode, in our conversation, and it just keeps replaying in my spirit over and over and over again.

SPEAKER_00 2:47

This man walked in the door, his name was uh Mondo, we called him, but he was in his 30s, he was about 30, 31 when I met him. I was 10, and Mondo asked me if I wanted to hang out with him and my friend Jacob up at Mondo's house because Mondo liked to play video games, he loved pizza and pop and all the things that kids love. So I said absolutely. So I started hanging out with Mondo and Jacob. After a few months of that, I was going up to Mondo's house by myself every weekend, and that's when Mondo started to abuse me. Monday through Friday, I was living at home with my mom who's addicted to drugs, abusive, violent, crazy house. And then Friday night, Saturday night, I was at Mondo's house being sexually abused by this grown man. Oh, after almost six years of being abused by him. I was up at his house one weekend and I had a younger friend with me. And my younger friend started, or he started to make comments towards my younger friend about what he was going to do to him or what he wanted to do to him. And when he started making those comments, I knew that he was serious. I knew he wasn't joking. And that was actually the catalyst for me to report. People asked me all the time, like, why did you finally report him? Or what happened that made me report him, and that was it. He was about to start taking advantage of my younger friend. And so that weekend I went home and reported him.

SPEAKER_01 4:10

Seth kept saying, I chose, he chose, he chose to report, he chose to heal, he chose to become a different father, a different husband. He chose to be a provider, he chose not to become what happened to him. And I couldn't stop thinking about that word because choose are choices, and this entire season is built around choices. That's why it's called legacy by choice, chosen, not inherited. And my conversation with Seth made me start asking questions. And one of those questions were: how many of us are living lives we never actually chose for ourselves? Not because we're bad people, not because we don't love God or we don't trust his plans for our lives, and not because we're not trying, but because somewhere along the lines in our journey through life, we inherited a life, we inherited beliefs, we inherited survival, we inherited fear, silence, emotional walls that we put up, people pleasing, abandonment, poverty mindsets, dysfunctions, family dysfunctions, even dysfunctions in ourselves, anger, and the big one, keep everything in the family. We inherited don't talk about it, or another one, that's just who I am, that's just the way that I am, I can't change. And we naturally inherited survival, but somewhere survival started pretending to be a part of our identity. It was it's like an organ built on the inside of us. But can I ask you something? When was the last time you stopped and asked yourself, is this really me? Is this really who I am, the representation of myself? Or is this just what I learned, taught behavior? Because there's a difference, a huge difference, a distinction. And I don't think a lot of us really get to talk about that distinction and the difference between the two. But we spend so much time trying to figure out who we are, who we want to become, without asking the question first. What did I inherit that was never actually mine? What did I birth? What am I carrying that's not mine to carry? Some of us inherited anxiety, emotional distance, even yelling, shutting down. We even inherited pretending everything's okay. I'm good, I'm okay, I'm strong. We inherited the belief that love has to hurt before we start feeling the sweet parts of it, that respect has to be earned through suffering, that forgiveness means staying where you're being destroyed in places and things, that family means tolerating abuse. Who taught us this? Who convinced us that dysfunction was normal? Who convinced us that chaos was home? That's a part of home. We're supposed to live in chaos. This happens, it's normal. You know, I think about my own life a lot of times when I have these conversations because there were so many moments where I thought, this is just who I am. I'm an independent woman. I'm strong, a strong black woman at that. I don't ask for help, I carry everything, I can keep going, I don't need to cry. I'm gonna be okay. I miss, figure it out. I got this. I didn't let people in. I fix everything on my own, I fix everybody else and abandon myself. I thought that I was that my strength was enough. But one day I heard a little whisper. A whisper from God. Jen, that's not strength. That is survival. You are merely surviving. And when he showed me and revealed that to me, I cried because I didn't I didn't know. I had no idea, I didn't realize. I'd spent years confusing survival with my identity, that this is who I am. I'm just a strong woman. I can provide for myself, I can be there for myself. But there's a difference. Survival says don't trust anybody. And healing says you can trust wisely. Survival says stay busy. Healing says rest. Survival tells us don't let them see you cry. While healing says it's okay to feel, feel it all, process it. And then survival tells us you have to earn love while healing tells you you are worthy worthy and you were loved and favored. Can I tell you something that changed my life forever? It changed my life forever, and that is healing isn't becoming somebody new. Healing is finally meeting the version of yourself that trauma never allowed you to become. And then it benefited everybody else. It wasn't an easy one, and it wasn't a perfect one. It was a decision to stop allowing yesterday to decide tomorrow, to decide their future. A lot of people have asked me before, Jen, how do you break generational cycles? Like it seems impossible. It's impossible when other people don't want to break them. It's like a checklist. It's like there's 10 easy steps. Like you wake up one day and suddenly you're healed. Some people say that. No. No, no, no. That's not how breaking generational cycles work at all. Breaking generational cycles is messy, it can be painful, and certainly it is lonely. Because sometimes the people who taught you unhealthy things, traits, and qualities, and poured into us unhealthy habits are the same people you love. That's what makes it so hard. If they were strangers, we'd walk away easily. Close that door, never look back. But when it's your mother, when it's your father, your grandparents, your siblings, your best friend, your husband, your wife, your culture, your church, your community, now you feel torn. You're stuck. You feel stuck because now your heart is involved. Your emotions are involved. And I know that feeling very, very, very well. I know what it's like to love people and still have to choose yourself above everybody, even though you love them and you don't want them to hurt. You want everybody to be happy. I know what it's like to pray for people and still create, put up, and be firm in your boundaries. I know what it's like to forgive without giving someone unlimited access to your life anymore. Keep that door closed. Those are two different things. Forgiveness doesn't always look like reconciliation. Sometimes forgiveness looks like peace, distance, not speaking to them anymore. Can we start normalizing that though? Because somewhere we've made people feel guilty. Guilty for protecting their peace, guilty for saying no, guilty for choosing themselves, guilty for choosing happiness. You can love someone, pray for someone, want the best for them, and still recognize that they cannot continue to have access to the version of you that God is rebuilding, that God is molding, that God is creating. And that isn't hate. It's not, it's wisdom, it's freedom. It's peace, it's your peace, and you're allowed to have your peace. I remember thinking if I ever have children, they deserve a different version of me. Not a perfect mother, not a perfect woman, not a woman who has all the answers or everything together. I look like everything's great, but a woman willing to heal in front of them with them. Because healed people heal people. Healed people heal people, and unhealed people, even with good intentions, often pass their wounds forward, even without knowing it sometimes. Not because they're evil, because wounds spread unless somebody decides this stops and ends with me. And maybe that's you. Maybe you're the first person in your family to go to therapy. Congratulations. Maybe you're the first person to apologize. I praise you for that. Maybe you're the first person to talk about mental health. You're amazing, trust me. Maybe you're the first person to choose peace over proving a point because it's not worth it. Your peace is so expensive and valuable. Maybe you're the first person to leave abuse. Oh, I love you. Maybe you're the first person to stop screaming. That voice sounds good. Maybe you're the first person to tell your children, I love you, I love you, baby, I love you so so much. If that is you, I need you to hear me loud and clear. You are not betraying your family or loved ones or friends. You're giving your family a future they never had and that they deserve free and peaceful. Don't let anybody convince you that healing is disrespect. Because sometimes the greatest act of love is refusing to pass pain to the next generation. And I want you to sit with this because I'm just gonna sit with it too. Because when we come back next week's episode, I want to talk about the hardest truth I ever had to accept. The truth that completely changed how I looked at my past, how I looked at my experiences, how I look at the things that I went through, allowed myself to go through. And how I finally realized legacy isn't something we leave after we're gone. Legacy is something we build every single day, every single day we're working at building that legacy. There was a season in my life where I blamed everything that happened to me. I blamed myself for it. Not publicly because publicly I looked fine. I was smiling, I was working, I was building, building those blocks. I was helping people, I was achieving. I was checking every box that society tells us means we're doing well. You have children, check. You're married, check. You're in a healthy relationship, check. You got the career, check. But internally, I was exhausted and I couldn't understand why I was feeling so drained, so angry sometimes. Have you ever been there? Have you ever felt that? Where everybody around you thinks you're doing amazing, but you're secretly tired, not physically, but soul tired, like drained, the kind of tired sleep doesn't fix, no amount of sleep can fix that tiredness. The kind of tired vacations don't fix, even when the vacation's absolutely amazing. The kind of tired that money can't fix because the exhaustion isn't coming from your schedule, it's coming from carrying things you were never meant to carry. Wasn't your load to carry, wasn't your load to bear. I finally realized one day I wasn't just carrying my own pain, I was carrying my mother's pain, I was carrying my family's pain. I was carrying generations of silence, generations of survival, generations of pretending, generations of we don't talk about that. Keep it in the family, and I'm not sure which one of you needs to hear this, but you don't have to keep carrying what wasn't yours, you don't let it go. Some of you are carrying guilt that belongs to somebody else, give it back. You're carrying shame that belongs to somebody else, you're carrying secrets that belong to somebody else, you're carrying responsibilities that belong to somebody else, and they're not yours, and it's weighing you down. You are carrying expectations that God never gave you is time. And somewhere along the way, we confuse carrying everything with being strong. No. Strong people know when to put something down. Listen to that. Strong people know when to put something down. One of the hardest truths I ever had to accept was this. What happened to me was not my fault, but what happened next, what I choose to do next, became my responsibility. And that hurt me deeply because I wanted someone else to fix it. Put it back together, fix me. I wanted someone to apologize to me. I was waiting for that apology to come. I wanted someone else to acknowledge it, acknowledge me and what I went through. I wanted someone else to make it make sense for me. Explain it to me, break it down like I'm a two-year-old. But healing doesn't wait for apologies. Healing doesn't wait for closure. Healing doesn't wait for justice. Healing begins the moment you decide I refuse to stay here. I refuse to stay in this same cycle repeatedly. Please hear me when I say this. I'm not saying what happened doesn't matter. It does matter 100%. It always will. Your story matters, your tears matter, your trauma matters, the abuse you went through matters, the grief you've been experienced matters, your betrayal matters. Everything you survived in your life matters, but it cannot and should not be your permanent address. You don't have to live there anymore. It can be a part of your story without becoming your identity, becoming an organ, a part of your body part. And I truly believe that's where some of us get stuck. We get tied up, we become so connected to what happened to us that we can't release from it, that we forget who we were before it all happened to us. Or even worse, we never even got the chance to discover who we were supposed to become because we're still stuck there, we're still sitting in that same spot. Trauma interrupted introductions. It introduced us to fear before it introduced us to confidence, it introduced us to survival before we even knew peace or knew what peace meant or looked like for ourselves. It introduced us to hypervigilance before safety. It introduced us to rejection before unconditional love. So now we're trying to untangle, untie what belongs to us and what belongs. To trauma. But I want to ask you something else. You can write this down. Who are you without survival? Who are you when you're not trying to prove yourself? Who are you when you're not trying to earn love from anybody, but own the love that you have for yourself? Who are you when you're not trying to be accepted by everybody? Love up and own up yourself. Who are you when you're not performing? Who's that person? What does that person look like? Because maybe, just maybe, the version of you God created has been waiting patiently behind all the coping mechanisms that you have put into place. That person's waiting. I realized that people don't actually fear healing. They fear who they'll become if they heal. Think about how scary that might be. Who's on the other side? Because healing changes everything, it changes the game for you. Some friendships won't survive, some relationships won't survive, some habits will never survive. Some conversations will disappear. Some environments vanish. And honestly, they're not supposed to. They're not supposed to survive, they're supposed to fade away. Growth requires separation, not because you're better, because you're different. And different feels offensive to people who benefit from the old version of you. Those things have to fade away. Some things have to die for new things to reap. Some people like you more when you had no boundaries. Some people liked you more when you said yes to everything. You people pleased. They like you more when you stay silent, you don't stand up for yourself. They like you more when you apologize for every little thing, even when things aren't your fault. Some people will like you more when you abandon your own self to keep the peace and keep them comfortable with who you are. Then think about it this way: one day you started healing, and suddenly they'll call you difficult, different, you changed, you switched up, you're selfish, you're too much, you're too emotional, you're too sensitive. But can I tell you something? Sometimes you've changed is the greatest compliment you'll ever receive from somebody. Because you're supposed to change just like trees change, seasons change, children grow. Why do we expect healing to leave us exactly the same way we were when we went into the healing process? You're not who you were five years ago. Thank God. Why would you want to be that same person from five years ago? You are not who you were 10 years ago. Hallelujah. Because if all the pain you've you survived didn't produce wisdom, didn't produce love, change, healing, then what was it for? What did you go through all of that for? I'm not grateful for abuse. I'm not grateful for trauma. I'm not grateful for the betrayal. But what I am grateful for, I am grateful that it did not have the final word or say in my life and who I am and the person that I'm becoming. It didn't change who I was supposed to be. And maybe that's for you listening today. Your story isn't over. This chapter isn't your final conclusion. You've convinced yourself that this is just my life. Why? No, this is not your life. This is just one chapter, one spread. Stop reading chapter five, like it's the ending. God is still writing. He didn't stop writing your story. It's still in the making. I remember personally looking in the mirror one day and asking myself, who are you becoming? Not what happened to me, not what happened to you, not who hurt you, not who hurt me, not what I lost, but who am I becoming? Who are you becoming? Who are you becoming? Ask yourself that. Go in the mirror when this is done and ask yourself that question. Because that's the question, legacy ask. Legacy doesn't ask what survived. Legacy ask, what are you building now in this season? What are you creating and why? And that's when everything shifted from me. I stopped asking why me. And I started asking, now what? What's next? What's next for Jen? What's next for Janelle? Because why me keeps you looking backwards every time. Now what moves your feet forward? Each step you take, you're moving forward. And every single day, I chose one small step. Doesn't have to be a giant leap. One decision, one boundary, one prayer, one uncomfortable conversation, one therapy session, one honest journal entry, one act of forgiveness, one choice that I chose for myself. That's how legacy is built. Not in one big moment, but in thousands of ordinary decisions that we continue to make every day that nobody sees. We don't get an applause for it. We don't get praises for it. Because tomorrow I want you to wake up and make one choice. Make one choice. Your future grandchildren, children's children will never know you made. Choose patience. Choose honesty. Choose rest. Choose peace, your peace. Choose healing, your healing, your healing. Choose forgiveness. Choose to stop yelling. Choose to hug your children. Tell them you love them. Tell somebody you love them genuinely. Choose to apologize even when you're angry. Choose to believe you are worthy. You're valuable because those tiny choices become family history. There was a time when I thought legacy was something you left behind after you died. You left money. You left assets, books, pictures. I thought legacy was your house, your bank account, your career, your degrees, your awards, the fancy titles in front of your name, the applause, the praises, the standing ovations that you will receive, the magazine cover, the interviews, the books, the followers, the verified check marks, your beauty, your essence. I really thought when I was younger that that's what legacy was until life humbled me. And life humbled me fast, trust me. Because I've stood beside too many caskets. I've watched people cry over people who had everything except peace. They didn't live. I've watched families fight over inheritance, properties, money while never inheriting love. I've watched children receive houses, but never received hugs. I've watched people inherit businesses while also inheriting addictions. I've watched people inherit wealth while inheriting emotional abandonment and not knowing how to regulate their emotions and process how they feel. And I realize money can be inherited, but character has to be chosen, and it has to be chosen by you. It has to be your choice. Peace has to be your choice, it has to be chosen. Healing has to be chosen by you. Integrity has to be chosen by you. Love has to be chosen every single day. It is a choice that you make to love and not hate. Can I ask you something else? When your children tell stories about you one day, because they will, what will they say? Will they say, my mom or my dad worked hard? Or will they say, my mom or my dad made me feel safe? There's a difference. Will they remember your salary or your presence, your smile? Will they remember your promotions or the conversations around the dinner table that you created that safe space for them? Will they remember the overtime or the bedtime stories? Will they remember everything you brought them or how you looked at them when they walked into the room and how you hugged them and embraced them? Because children don't remember luxury the way adults think they do. They remember how they feel, how they felt. They remember if home felt peaceful and the smell. They remember if they were allowed to make mistakes. They remember whether they had to earn your love or was it freely given. They remember if they were afraid to tell you the truth, whether they felt seen and understood. That's legacy. Legacy isn't what you leave them. Legacy is what you leave in them. What you've poured into them and planted in them. Legacy is what you leave in them, what you pour into them, what you planted in them. That's why this season matters so much to me because every single guest, every single conversation has pointed back to one thing. Choice, not perfection. Choice, not pretending, no facade, choices. I've had the opportunity to learn every family has a story. Some stories are filled with joy, some are filled with unimaginable pain. Pain that we can't even phantom. Some are filled with addictions, some are filled with violence, silence, abandonment, and some are burdened with secrets. Every family has something. So stop looking at everyone else's life and thinking, they had it easy. Why couldn't my life be like theirs? You don't know what people inherited and what they're battling. You only know what they show you and what they choose. Choices to tell you. Social media has made us compare our behind the scenes to everybody else. Everybody else is highlight real. And it's so dangerous because while you're comparing, you're missing the miracle that's already happening inside you. All the healing that's happening inside you, the growing, the becoming. You may not be where you want to be right now in life. But do yourself a favor and thank God you're not where you used to be. Every day is progress. Every day is a choice that you get to make to do way better and better than yesterday. Can we celebrate the progress more? Because healing isn't linear. Some days you'll feel like you've conquered the mountain, you've conquered the world, you've dominated a lot. Other days, maybe terrible. One smell, one song, one conversation, one memory can take you right back to that place. But that doesn't mean that you failed. It means you're human and you're allowed to be human. You're allowed to be human first. Stop beating yourself up because healing has layers, many layers. Every layer reveals another opportunity to make another choice, to choose differently, to do things differently, to alter things. I personally still have moments. There are days where I cry sometimes. There are days where I have questions. There are days I miss people. There are days I grieve the childhood, portions of my childhood that I never had that I wish I could change, but I knew I had to go through it. I grieve the innocence that was stolen from me. I grieved the little girl who had to grow up too fast and try to protect my own self. I grieved the woman who spent years believing I had to earn love and love was exterior, not just internal. I grieve her, but I don't live there anymore. Some days I may visit from time to time. I acknowledge her. I even hug her. I pray over her. And then I keep walking, I keep moving. I can't stay stuck there. I still gotta move these feet and get going. I got work to do, things to do, things to create. Because healing isn't pretending she never existed. Healing is refusing to let her pain drive the rest of my life and my future and the family that I've built. Maybe today you need to grieve. Maybe you've never given yourself the permission to grieve, to do the things you want to do. Maybe you've never been so busy. You've been so busy surviving that you've never actually mourned. Mourn your childhood, mourn the relationship, mourn the betrayal, mourn the marriage, the ended marriage, mourn the ended friendship, mourn the dream, mourn it. It's okay. Because what we refuse to grieve, we often end up repeating. We're going around in that circle, trying to figure out why we ended up back in the same spot. One of the greatest lies we've been taught is be strong. Can I redefine strength for you? Please. Strength isn't never crying. Strength isn't pretending you're okay. Strength isn't carrying everything by yourself on your back like you're a donkey. Strength is having the courage to say, I'm not okay today. Strength is going to therapy if you need to. Strength is asking for help, being vulnerable. Strength is praying when your faith feels weak. Strength is forgiving someone who will never apologize. Strength is saying, it ends with me, and I'm going to make sure it ends with me. That's strength. Not pretending. No performance. Not people pleasing. Truth. Being honest with yourself first. And maybe that's why God allowed many of us to survive. Not so we'd spend the rest of our lives asking why, but so we'd spend the rest of our lives showing others. There's another way. And I'm not too sure about you, but I certainly refuse. I cannot afford to let pain be the loudest thing my children inherit from me. I refuse. I cannot. It's not even possible for me. I want them to inherit peace, faith, character, their own character, their own faith for themselves, kindness, honesty, compassion, gentleness, softness, courage, love, the ability to apologize when they need to, the ability to forgive, the confidence to walk away from what does not honor them or serve them or make them feel good. The wisdom to choose differently for themselves. That's the inheritance I'm trying to build every single day for my babies. Not because I'm perfect, because I'm not perfect. I still got flaws, trust me, lots of them. But because I'm intentional and intentional people change generations. So if you're still with me and you're listening today, I want you to stop waiting for perfection for the perfect moment. There's no perfect moment. Stop waiting until you're fully healed. Stop waiting until everything makes sense because sometimes it won't make sense until after the work is done. Stop waiting until everybody understands because guess what? Not everyone's gonna understand. They may never understand you. And that's okay. Maybe they weren't meant to understand you. Your assignment was never to convince everybody. Your assignment was simply to obey, to listen, to heal, to choose, to become, to keep walking, keep moving, even when nobody claps for you, even when nobody notices, even when it feels lonely and dark, because one day someone you've never met is going to experience peace because you refused to pass on, to pass forward pain. That's legacy. That's how cycles are broken, that's how we break them, that's how families change, that's how nations changed. One healed person at a time heals a nation. So before we end today's episode, this conversation, I don't want to ask you what happened to you. Life has probably asked you that question enough. So instead, ask this question with me. I want to leave you with these three questions. Repeat them back to yourself. Grab your notebook, quick and pen, write them down, revisit them. Who are you becoming? What are you choosing? And what will the people who come after you never have to recover from? Because you made one brave choice, one decision today. Family, thank you for trusting me with these conversations that we continue to have together. Thank you for choosing to heal with me. Thank you for growing with me. Thank you for reminding me that this podcast, this platform, Life's Deceit, has never been about perfection. It's always been about truth. I want you to know this that I, Jen Simpson, Janelle Simpson, I'm proud of you. Not because you've arrived, but because you're still here. You're still choosing, you're still making choices, you're still fighting, you're still believing, you're still becoming. Keep building, keep believing yourself, and keep loving you. I'm Jen Simpson, and this is Life's Deceit. Remember and never forget, legacy isn't inherited, legacy is chosen. One decision, one day, one generation at a time. I'll see you next week. Take care of yourself and take care of each other. And please remember to pour into yourselves first. That is the only way that you can overflow into other people is when you pour and continue to pour into yourselves first. What you choose today becomes the legacy you pass on.