What if being seen was never about the likes at all?

This solo reflection follows Kirby’s conversation with Tanya and Julius in “Living for Likes.” Sitting with the episode afterward, Kirby realized the conversation was never really about social media — it was about what it means to be seen. One line from Tanya stayed with him: validation isn’t “you’re awesome, yay,” it’s “I see you and you matter.”

From there, Kirby traces his own relationship with validation — wanting to be seen as smart growing up, wanting proof he belonged in college, and the quiet unraveling that happened when COVID forced him to close his company and step away from creative work. He shares what brought his creativity back, how meditation and inner work changed his relationship with needing outside approval, and the friendship that showed him what it feels like to be truly witnessed. He closes with a reflection on the ego as a human, not a problem to fix — drawing on Anita Moorjani’s What If This Is Heaven? — and an invitation for listeners to ask what part of themselves has been waiting for their attention.