We delay choosing ourselves because we think someone else will choose us. Lately, I’ve learned that if they haven’t chosen you by now, they probably never will. People place masculinity inside a box, believing it has to look a certain way—and that anything outside of that box is feminine, wrong, or somehow less than. But masculinity doesn’t exist in a vacuum. I’m learning that it isn’t fixed. It’s flexible. It can move, expand, soften, and still be masculine. And I’m done shaming myself for existing outside of the box. Yes, I’m single. Yes, I face rejection daily. But at least I’m free to be whoever I choose to be, and not whoever I was taught I should be. And I think choosing myself has been worth every rejection.