The weight I carried, cold and vast,
A shadow stretching from my past.
Each fear a brick, each doubt a stone,
I built a fortress, all alone.
Yet walls of fear can twist and break,
And silence echoes when they shake.
No shelter keeps the soul at ease,
If all it does is help you freeze.
So bit by bit, I learned to stand,
To shape my world with careful hand.
Not walls to hide, but roots to grow,
Not shields of steel, but light to show.
The weight once heavy, dark, and grim,
Now fuels the fire from within.
A burden borne, not cast away,
Becomes the light that shapes my way.
This project was more than just a milestone—it was a defense. A quiet act of survival in a world that overwhelmed me, where noise, pressure, and expectations blurred any sense of safety. I wasn’t trying to succeed. I was trying to feel okay.
We’re told to adapt, to chase status, to blend into systems that reward speed over sensitivity. But when anxiety takes hold, survival becomes its own kind of resistance. In the chaos, I built structure—not to impress, but to protect. A place where I could feel grounded again.
This project reminded me that I didn’t need to win. I needed peace. I needed discipline—not to control, but to build a safe foundation inside myself. And through the process, I found clarity, purpose, and the quiet strength to keep going.
True value isn’t found out there. It’s built in here—brick by brick.
Collected by Cozomo de’ Medici as part of The Medici Collection in 2021, this project became one of the largest early NFT sales on the Tezos chain. It was displayed in Times Square, NYC, during NFT NYC.