No one really talks about queer burnout. This season, I leaned in and sat with that feeling for a while, unpacking how the constant performance many of us have been doing our entire lives can become incredibly heavy. When I was younger, I thought Pride was supposed to feel loud and vibrant. I imagined adulthood as this glamorous arrival point where authenticity would eventually become effortless, especially once I moved somewhere like New York, where freedom feels like the default mode when you CRANK IT in these streets. In many ways, it has been. But the older I get, particularly as a queer creative working in industries obsessed with image, culture, and identity, the more Pride has started to feel quieter, heavier, and infinitely more honest than I ever expected.