About the Collection

‍There are seasons of life that consume you whole—where grief, love, heartbreak, and self-destruction threaten to pull you under. Lessons Learned the Hard Way is a collection of poetry and prose written from the depths of those moments. Told in raw, unfiltered chronology, this book is less a retrospective and more a survival record—a translation of feelings too heavy to carry alone. Through cities and lovers, through longing and loss, through vices and revelations, these pages document what it means to feel everything deeply and still come out on the other side.

‍This collection has been many years in the making. The very first poem was written as an English class assignment during my junior year of high school. In the years since, poetry has become my way of understanding my emotions and making sense of my perspective when things feel too heavy to see clearly.‍

‍As this collection reveals, those moments often arose in times of emotional anguish—navigating the messiness of young adulthood, love, loss, and self-discovery. Yet even in those moments, I recognized the power of creating something beautiful from the wreckage. If you take anything away from this book, let it be this: you must strive to transform the lessons you learn and the pain you endure into something magnificent. You must embrace the vulnerability, the uncertainty, and even the darkness—because more often than not, that’s where the magic happens. ✨

A taste of what's inside.