I Built This Box. Now What?

For years, I've been known for one thing.

I built a box.

Not a bad box. Not a broken box. A box I actually like.

It's called Sassy Politics.

But lately I've been asking myself a question I didn't expect:

What happens when the thing you built starts feeling too small for who you're becoming?

In this episode, I talk about identity, burnout, creativity, expectations, and the strange feeling of waking up one day and realizing you don't know if you want to stay inside the role you've created for yourself.

This isn't just about politics.

It's about careers.

Relationships.

Motherhood.

Dreams.

And the courage it takes to evolve when everyone around you expects you to stay exactly the same.

Maybe you've built a box too.

Let's talk about what happens next.

🎙️ Listen wherever you get your podcasts.

Follow Christi Chanelle:
TikTok: @ChristiChanelle
YouTube: Sassy Politics
Instagram: @ChristiChanelle
Facebook: Sassy Politics

New episodes every Tuesday.

Transcript

SPEAKER_00 0:00

I almost didn't record this episode. And that's just weird. Because if you've been around here for any amount of time, you know I always have something to say. Always. I have opinions, thoughts, observations, questions, reactions. I can usually find something worth talking about. But for the last month or so, I've been sitting down in front of this microphone and just staring at it. And I've kept trying to figure out why. At first I thought maybe it was burnout. Then I thought maybe it was writer's block or speaker's block. I don't even know if that's a thing. But the more I've sat with it, the more I think it's something else. I think it's identity block. I think I've gotten to a place where I'm not entirely sure who I am in this space anymore. I'm Christy Chanel, and this is Sassy Politics. I've spent the last two years talking about politics, current events, democracy, elections, and the world we're all living through together. I've I've curated a group of over 12,000 followers on TikTok. Over a thousand fifty subscribers on YouTube. Like I've worked my ass off in this space. I'm not disappearing. I'm not quitting. I'm not making some dramatic announcement. This isn't one of those episodes, I promise. This is me trying to understand something in real time. Because I think I've built a box. And the crazy thing is, nobody put me in it. I built it myself, brick by brick, episode by episode. I created something that people could recognize. And that's what we're told we're supposed to do, right? Find your niche, find your lane, stay consistent. Build your audience. Give people what they came for. We've all heard it. And there's value in that. There really is. And then suddenly you're sitting there wondering whether you've changed or whether you've just finally started paying attention to yourself. And I don't know what the answer is. I don't know which one it is. Maybe it's both. Because when I really sit down and think about what interests me, it's never been politics by itself. It's always been people. Politics was just the doorway, the thing that got me into the conversation. But the conversation I always wanted to have was about us. Why people believe what they believe. Why families stop talking to each other? Why some people speak up while others stay silent. Why we cling to identities, why we outgrow them. Why are we so afraid to change our minds? Why are we so afraid to change it all? Those are the conversations I think about when I'm driving. And then it just they keep staying with me. And so lately I've realized something. Everybody's talking about the headlines, like everybody. You can't open your phone right now and not find a thousand people telling you what just happened. A thousand people explaining why it happened. A thousand people telling you how you should feel about it. I'm interested in something different. I'm interested in what happens to us because of it. What happens to family and friends and co-workers because of it? What happens to our mental health? Or our ability to trust each other? What happens when we spend years living in a constant state of reaction? Because I think that's a part of what I've been experiencing. I've spent years paying attention. Years watching and reacting. Feeling like every single thing that happened in the world required my attention. Maybe now I'm asking a different question. Maybe I just want to know what happens when I stop reacting long enough to listen to myself again. I don't know. I have no answer. I wish I did. This would be a much cleaner episode if I did. But I don't. I'm figuring it out in real time. And that's why I wanted to record this. Uh, trust me, I wasn't feeling it when I sat down at this microphone. Podcasting has always been a little bit of therapy for me. This microphone has heard me work through grief, frustration, fear, hope, confusion. And apparently now it's hearing me work through identity. Because I think that's what this really is. It's identity. What do you do when you've spent years becoming something and suddenly feel yourself becoming something else? I think a lot of people understand that feeling. Maybe it's your career or relationship, maybe it's your faith. Could be the role you've played in your family, or the version of yourself that everybody else got comfortable with. You know, the version that made everybody else feel secure, and now you're changing. It wasn't part of the plan. It's not because you woke up one morning and decided to, it's just life. Life just happened, experience just happened, and so did growth. And now you're standing in front of a box that once fit perfectly and wondering why you can't breathe inside of it anymore. That's where I am. Maybe, maybe you feel that way too. What I do know is I don't think we were ever meant to spend our entire lives inside a box. Even when we built ourselves. I think we were meant to grow and evolve. I think we were meant to discover new parts of ourselves over and over again. And I think that that's uncomfortable because growth asks us to leave behind certainty. What you're familiar with. It it asks us to walk towards something before we fully understand what it is, what it could be. That's where I feel like I am. I don't know where the road leads. I don't know exactly what this show is going to become. I don't know what the next chapter is. Maybe it's a book. But for the first time in a long time, I think I'm okay not knowing. Maybe the goal isn't to have all the answers. Maybe the goal is to stay curious enough to keep asking the questions. And if that's where you are, and you're standing in front of some version of your own box, wondering if it still fits. I hope you give yourself permission to explore what's outside of it. Because this is your life. This is your story and your world. And you don't owe it to anyone to stay exactly who you were five years ago. Are you kidding? You don't. And I know it feels like you need to. It doesn't. The people who love you will grow with you. The people who understand you will walk with you. And the people that don't, well, they were probably in love with the box anyway. As for me, I'm gonna keep showing up and asking questions. I'm gonna keep trying to understand what it means to be human in a world that feels increasingly complicated. And if you'll let me, I'd like to take that journey with you. Because at the end of the day, that's what this has always been. It's not a brand. Sassy politics is not a brand. It's not a niche, and it's definitely not a box. It's a conversation. And I think we're just getting started. See you next Tuesday.