03/17/2026
Who is Najla. AKA Nana I’m the girl who grew up too fast.
The oldest of four. The responsible one. The one who was always expected to hold everything together. I became a second mother before I even knew how to just be a kid. I went through a lot at a young age. Some things I still don’t like to talk about. A complicated relationship with my dad experiences that forced me to mature quickly… and moments where I learned to just say “whatever” and keep moving. I’ve always been the one making sure everyone else is comfortable. Making sure I never overstep, never disrespect even if it meant shrinking myself in the process.
I moved a lot. Never really had long-term friends. It was always just my parents and my siblings. Then one day I left the place I knew and loved and moved to a whole new country… learning a new language and watching my parents try to build a life from scratch. I learned early how to deal with things…but not always how to feel them. I was taken advantage of by someone who was supposed to be a trusted religious figure in the community. And instead of processing it, I buried it and kept going. That’s what I knew how to do. Deal with things. Handle them. Move on.
Life kept moving. I got married at 18. Had my first child at 20. Left my family in America and started over again in Canada. Then came one of the hardest moments of my life giving birth to a baby girl at 16 weeks. Experiencing everything that came with it… and still telling myself, “what’s crying going to do?”Sometimes I wonder if that’s my strength or my defense. Because I’m a doer. A hustler. I handle things instead of talking about them. & yes, I’ve made mistakes. A lot of them. But every step, every fall, every lesson shaped the woman I am today. Everyone has a story. Everyone carries something. For me… my past explains me, but it doesn’t define me. Trauma is real, but it doesn’t have to become the excuse for who I stay.
I still have the power to grow. To heal. To choose who I become. & maybe I’m still learning how to feel the things I spent years just surviving.
But I’m still here. And I’m still becoming.
