Celestine Speaks: The Voice of Self-Esteem You’ve Been Ignoring

By: Dr. Wil Rodriguez

“You used to know me,” she says gently.

“Back when your laughter was loud, your dreams unfiltered, and your joy unlicensed.”

Her name is Celestine.

She is the part of you that has waited silently behind every apology you didn’t owe.

She is the one who whispered, “This isn’t love,” while you stayed anyway.

She is the voice you buried to be accepted — the one that never gave up on you.

A Deeper Conversation

YOU: “Why now? Why speak to me after all this time?”

CELESTINE: “Because I was never gone.

You just stopped listening.

And now… you’re tired enough to finally hear me.”

YOU: “I thought I was protecting you. I needed to survive.”

CELESTINE: “You were surviving by shrinking.

Surviving by pleasing.

But I was never meant to be protected — I was meant to be empowered.”

YOU: “I didn’t know how.”

CELESTINE: “You weren’t taught how.

But you always knew deep down.

Every tear, every tight chest, every fake smile was me —

tugging at your soul, asking you to choose you.”

YOU: “I thought love meant sacrificing myself.”

CELESTINE: “Love without you in it… isn’t love.

It’s absence wearing perfume.”

YOU: “I’m afraid I won’t know who I am without the masks.”

CELESTINE: “Then let me reintroduce you…

You are not your trauma.

You are not the role you performed.

You are the one who stayed alive through all of it.

And now, you’re ready to live — not just survive.”

What Celestine Remembers

Celestine remembers the child who asked bold questions.

The teenager who dimmed their light to fit in.

The adult who kept giving away their worth in exchange for crumbs of approval.

“I watched you lower your standards and raise your tolerance.

I watched you call pain ‘passion’ and silence ‘peace’.”

What Celestine Offers Now

“I am not your ego.

I am not arrogance.

I am your sacred truth —

and I am finally done being quiet.”

“You don’t need another quote.

You need a mirror, a breath, and a decision.”

“Decide that you deserve the same devotion you give so freely to others.”

If Celestine Could Leave You With One Truth…

“You don’t have to become someone new to love yourself.

You just have to remember who you were before the world convinced you you weren’t enough.”

“I forgive you.

But I won’t go back to the shadows.

I’m here.

And I’m not leaving again.”

Before You Go

Before you give your time, your body, your energy to the world again,

pause… and ask yourself this:

Have you loved Celestine today?