I am a Mexican-American and have spent most of my life in Houston, Texas. Like many other children of immigrant parents, growing up I struggled with my various roles and identities. When navigating familial, peer, academic, religious and corporate settings, I often did not know how to be me in all of my complexity. The pressure to both assimilate and preserve cultural and faith beliefs, often left me exhausted. As the first-born daughter to young parents, I learned resilience and gained a strong work ethic, but along the way I adopted habits of people pleasing and over-performing — often living in survival mode. Rest was a concept I struggled with — always believing I had to “earn it.” Coming from a collectivist culture and as a first-generation woman, I carried the constant weight of responsibility to succeed in unhealthy ways. Due to cultural and familial beliefs I had about sadness and anger, I often rejected my natural human emotions and held myself to unrealistic expectations. As someone who has struggled with perfectionism, I know how isolating and exhausting it can be to follow society’s models of “success.”