From Nervous Breaths to New Beginnings

By: RosZie

Finding My Voice Again: From Nervous Breaths to New Beginnings

Have you ever done something so scary that you could actually hear yourself breathing?

That was my morning.

I hit record on my camera for the first time in a long while. My heart pounded, my breath echoed in my ears, and my mind ran wild with a mix of excitement and fear. I filmed my first video… then a second… and then a third. Each one wasn’t perfect, but each one was better. Each time, I felt myself stretching and growing a little more.

This wasn’t the kind of growth that comes from nitpicking every detail. It was gentler. It was the kind of growth that whispers, “You’re on a journey. Keep going.” Like optimizing your stride as you run down a long road, not to win a race, but to keep moving forward steadily.

The videos themselves are nothing fancy. They’re just five or six minutes long, simple, heartfelt conversations. They don’t have the polished editing or cinematic flair of the impressive YouTube videos I often admire. But here’s the thing: that doesn’t matter. What matters is that something deep inside me stirred awake.

For a while now, it’s felt like I’ve been in a kind of winter. Not a bad winter, just a quiet one, a season of stillness. And now, unexpectedly, it feels like spring has arrived in my soul. It’s funny, really, because outside, autumn leaves are falling and winter is fast approaching. Yet inwardly, there’s a thaw. A gentle blooming. A spark of life I didn’t realize I’d been missing.

By: Lee_seonghak

Growth doesn’t always happen through big, dramatic changes. More often, it happens in tiny, almost unnoticeable shifts. One brave step. One shaky breath. One new video. These small moments might not seem like much, but they can cause earthquakes of opportunity beneath the surface, the kind that reshape how we see ourselves.

This morning reminded me that the road to something meaningful rarely starts with perfection. It starts with a decision. A single, shaky, “let’s do this” moment. And with each step, confidence begins to catch up with courage.

I’m grateful for the nervous breaths, the awkward pauses, the learning curves, all of it. Because they’re proof that I’m in motion. And motion, no matter how small, is where transformation begins.

If you’ve ever had a moment like this, where something both scared and inspired you — I’d love to hear about it. Sometimes the most powerful stories start quietly, right where fear meets possibility.

My big takeaway from today’s video is this: showing up imperfect is so much better than not showing up at all.

While watching the playback, I noticed a few things. My breathing was a little distracting,  it pulled attention away from the message. That’s something I can work on by slowing down my pace, taking deeper breaths, and remembering that there’s no race to win with my words. One word at a time is enough.

I also noticed my hair,  it looked cool, but the grays stood out more on camera than I expected. Blending them a bit more will help me feel more confident in how I present myself on screen.

Neither of these observations feels discouraging. Instead, they’re clear, actionable steps I can take to grow and improve. And that’s the beauty of showing up: once you do, you give yourself something real to work with. I do not need to be perfect, I just need to be me!