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If You Feel Hidden in Love, Read This

3 min readApr 16, 2026

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I Refuse to Be “Pree-sha” Ever Again

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If you’ve ever felt hidden in a relationship — seen in private but not fully claimed in public — you already know what I’m about to say.

There was a time in my life when everything looked right on the outside.

But inside, I knew:

I wasn’t fully chosen.

As I approach 30 years of marriage, I’ve been reflecting on the lessons of what was — not just the beauty of what is.

There was a time in my life when I felt hidden in plain sight.

Everything looked right on the outside.

But inside, I knew:
I wasn’t fully chosen.

I was what Jill Scott calls Pree-sha in Pressure.

And if you know the song, you know the line:

I didn’t fit the aesthetic… I get it, I get it.

That realization changes something in you.

Because being Pree-sha isn’t loud.

It’s subtle.

It looks like:

  • Not being introduced with pride
  • Being managed in certain spaces
  • Feeling like your presence needs explanation

No one says you don’t belong.

But you feel it anyway.

Here’s What I Need Every Woman to Understand

You are not the problem

If someone cannot see you clearly, that is not a reflection of your worth — it is a limitation of their vision.

You were created without error.

The right love will not shrink you

You should never have to make yourself smaller to be accepted.

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If you feel yourself becoming Pree-sha, pay attention.

That feeling is not insecurity.

It’s clarity.

You must be willing to walk away

This is where many of us struggle.

But hear me:

Never become so emotionally attached that you lose the strength to choose yourself.

If you feel hidden…
If you feel like an inconvenience…
If you feel even a trace of embarrassment attached to your presence…

That is not your person.

That is Pree-sha.

What I Know Now

I am grateful I didn’t stay where I was tolerated instead of celebrated.

Grateful that God disrupted what didn’t align with my future.

And grateful I can say this out loud — because too many women never do.

To the Woman Reading This

If you feel unseen, unclaimed, or quietly diminished —

Let that be your answer.

You are not Pree-sha.

You are presence.
You are power.
You are worthy of a love that does not require you to disappear.

If you feel unseen, unclaimed, or quietly diminished —

Let that be your answer.

Not confusion.
Not potential.
Not something to “wait out.”

Clarity.

You are not Pree-sha.

You are presence.
You are power.
You are already enough — without adjustment, without apology.

And the right love will never require you to disappear in order to be chosen.

You don’t have to shrink to be loved.

Author’s Note

I share this not to revisit the past, but to reach the woman who may be living this in real time. Too many of us have been taught to endure what we should have walked away from. If this helps you choose yourself sooner, stand taller, or see more clearly — you are exactly who I wrote this for.

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Deborah D. Jenkins, DMin.
Deborah D. Jenkins, DMin.

Written by Deborah D. Jenkins, DMin.

Deborah Jenkins is an educator, writer, and cultural commentator exploring race, gender, and power through history, policy, and lived experience.