There are seasons in life when the voices around us try to dictate our destiny. Sometimes those voices are cruel, whispering that we are unwanted, inferior, or unworthy. And if we are not careful, we begin to live out their script, validating their prejudice with our own behavior. This is the tragedy of internalized rejection—when the chains outside become chains within.
That was my story. Along my journey, some people made sure I felt Averaged, Belittled, Condemned, and Devalued (ABCD) . And for a long time, I cooperated with their narrative.
But then came a moment of awakening. For some, it arrives through a book. For others, through a mentor. For me, it was a line in a video echoing Eleanor Roosevelt’s words: “No one can make you feel inferior without your consent.” That truth shattered the lie. It revealed that dignity is not something others grant—it is something we claim for ourselves.
Another reminder came from a video on greatness: it is not attained by sudden flight, but forged in hidden hours, while others sleep, by those who toil upward in the night. From that, a new motto was born. No longer ABCD , but DCBA —Destined to Conceive it, Believe it, and Achieve it. A shift from victimhood to vision, from rejection to resilience.
This is the power of reframing. The labels others impose do not have to be the labels we wear. The scripts others write do not have to be the stories we live. When we choose to conceive a new dream, believe in its possibility, and achieve it through perseverance, we break the cycle of inherited pain that makes us doubt our greatness.
The world is full of people carrying scars of rejection. But scars can be turned into stars. Yesterday’s wound can become today’s wisdom. The motto of despair can be rewritten into the anthem of hope.
So let us remember: ABCD is not the end of the alphabet. Dare to reverse it and we will have DCBA —the letters of possibility, the letters of destiny.
