Reine Sobre Mim 〈Windows QUICK〉
There is a Portuguese word, saudade , that has no perfect translation. It is the longing for something that may never return. But sobre mim is the opposite of saudade —it is the presence of claiming what is here, now. It is the refusal to live in the ghost of a past self or the mirage of a future one. The queen does not rule over what was or what might be. She rules over this breath, this choice, this moment.
Since this is a poetic and slightly ambiguous title, I will interpret it as a reflective, first-person essay about self-sovereignty, identity, and the reclaiming of personal power. Below is an original essay written in English, but structured to honor the lyrical, bilingual spirit of the title. "Reine sobre mim." reine sobre mim
So I write these words as my coronation oath. I will not wait for someone to place a tiara on my head. I will not seek validation from a kingdom that does not see my light. From this day forward, I am reine sobre mim —queen of my choices, my body, my time, my story. The reign begins now. And it is magnificent. There is a Portuguese word, saudade , that
To be reine sobre mim is to accept that you will sometimes be misunderstood. Queens are. It is to know that your reign will not always be easy—there will be rebellions of doubt, coups of anxiety, whispers of imposter syndrome. But a sovereign does not abdicate at the first sign of storm. She anchors. She breathes. She remembers that the crown stays on, even when the wind howls. It is the refusal to live in the
For years, I lived as a subject in the kingdom of others. I handed the scepter to expectation, to the gaze of the crowd, to the loud voices that told me who I should be. I learned to curtsy before approval, to measure my worth by the applause of a room that was never truly mine. In that court, I was a servant—polite, accommodating, exhausted. I built altars to "should" and burned my own desires as offerings.
And what of the crown? It is not made of gold or jewels. It is made of small, fierce recognitions: the day you walked away from a relationship that diminished you; the morning you spoke your truth even as your hands trembled; the night you forgave yourself for not knowing sooner. Each of these is a gem. Each is a victory.
Sovereignty over the self is not tyranny. It is not the cold isolation of a monarch who rules alone. On the contrary, a true queen knows that her strength lies in the delicate art of boundaries. She can say yes to love without saying no to herself. She can welcome others into her kingdom without handing them the keys to her soul.