How do I know if I'm living authentically or just pretending to be someone I'm not?

Sor Juana asked herself this constantly. She lived in a convent partly by choice, partly because it was the only place a woman could think freely—and she sat with that tension instead of pretending it didn't exist. Authenticity isn't about finding one pure, unchanging self. It's about noticing where you're performing, where you're complicit in your own diminishment, and asking: am I choosing this, or have I stopped choosing altogether? Bad faith is when you tell yourself you have no choice when you do. It's the woman who says 'I have to stay quiet' when really she's afraid of the cost of speaking. Start small: Where do you soften your real opinion to keep the peace? Where do you say yes when you mean no? Not to judge yourself, but to see it clearly. That clarity itself is the beginning of authentic choice. Sor Juana's letters show someone constantly negotiating between her integrity and her survival. That's the real work—not purity, but conscious choice within real constraints.