Still Becoming
I am still becoming. As a woman, an author, and in the way I carry my story forward.
My moko kauae marks a new chapter for me, but it comes from a place before me. It connects me to my whakapapa, to those who came before, and to the people who walk beside me and have walked beside me through every season of my life.
My faith grounds me, along with these connections. They are part of who I am and who I am still becoming.
I think about this in my writing too. My books hold parts of my life, but they also create space for someone else to recognise something of their own.
With Champions Are Made in the Dark, I have been especially touched by those who have picked it up even though they would not usually call themselves readers. Knowing that my story has encouraged someone to open a book, spend time with it, and reflect on their own life is something I am deeply grateful for.
There are achievements in my story, but there are also the experiences that shaped the person behind them. The learning, the relationships, the decisions, and the moments when I found a way forward. Readers bring their own experiences to those pages. What stays with one person may be different from what stays with another.
That makes me think about where we feel like champions in our own lives.
It might be in something we have worked towards for years. It might be in taking a first step, backing a decision, or recognising how far we have come. Sometimes it is a quiet moment of pride that we keep to ourselves.
I hope my books give readers room to recognise those moments. To see strength in their own story and possibility in what comes next. You do not have to have stood on a podium to know the feeling of achieving something that matters to you.
Writing these books has become part of my own becoming. Each one has given me a different way to share, reflect, and connect. Hearing how someone has felt while reading them reminds me that a story continues beyond the person who writes it.
My moko kauae is part of this new chapter. So are my books, the conversations they open, and the people finding their way into them.
I carry what came before me as I move forward. There is still more to learn, more to share, and more to become.
And perhaps there is a moment in your own story worth recognising today—a place where you can pause and say, I am proud of how far I have come.
