I Wasn’t Supposed to Make It Here.

They don’t expect women like me to walk into the Capitol smiling.

Not with tattoos on our arms. Not with trauma in our past.

Not with a recovery story instead of a résumé.

But here I am. And I’m not just walking in — I’m claiming space.

I was told to shrink, to hide, to survive.

Told to whisper, not speak.

Told that the systems weren’t built for me — and maybe they weren’t.

But I’m done asking permission.

I speak because silence almost killed me.

I speak for the woman still waking up on a shelter mattress wondering if her voice is worth anything.

I speak for the girl who was born addicted, handed a legacy of pain and expected to carry it quietly.

I am not quiet anymore.

This blog — Feather & Fire — is my unshaking “no.”

It’s a space where softness doesn’t mean weakness.

Where fire is sacred.

Where women don’t have to choose between being nurturing and being furious.

I use my voice because I’ve earned it — every syllable.

Every word I write here was paid for in healing, in heartbreak, in choosing myself when it would’ve been easier to stay broken.

This space isn’t pretty. It’s powerful.

So if you’re reading this, know this isn’t a performance — it’s a reckoning.

I’ll share my story not because it’s clean, but because it’s real.

And because you deserve to see what it looks like when a woman rises — again, and again, and again.

Welcome to Feather & Fire.

Let’s burn the silence down and build something honest.

– Christene Angell

Fire and feather. Voice and fury.