A Lyrical Song by Sound Alchemist Julie Jewels Smoot
 
This Is Reclamation is a powerful, unapologetic lyrical song about reclaiming your voice, your body, your boundaries, and your right to live life on your own terms.
 
Through emotionally honest lyrics and music, Julie Jewels Smoot explores what it means to reclaim personal sovereignty after surviving sexual violence, Military Sexual Trauma, betrayal, and years of living with Complex PTSD.
 
As a United States Navy veteran, author, poet, and longtime survivor advocate, Julie understands that reclamation is not about pretending the past never happened. It is about refusing to allow those experiences, or the people responsible for causing harm, to determine who she is today.
 
This is reclamation. Not because everything has healed, but because my life belongs to me.
 
Reclamation does not require forgiveness.
 
It does not require reconciliation.
It does not require silence to protect someone else's comfort.
 
And it does not require turning pain into something beautiful or meaningful.
 
Sometimes reclamation means speaking your truth.
Sometimes it means walking away.
 
Sometimes it means saying no without explaining why.
Sometimes it means choosing rest, solitude, creativity, or joy without feeling obligated to justify those choices.
 
I am not reclaiming myself to become who I was before trauma. I am reclaiming the freedom to be who I choose to be now.
 
This Is Reclamation challenges the expectations often placed on survivors to heal quietly, forgive quickly, remain agreeable, or make their experiences easier for others to hear.
 
Julie rejects the idea that surviving creates an obligation to become an inspiration, a lesson, or a symbol of strength for someone else.
 
Her story is hers.
Her body is hers.
Her voice is hers.
Her choices are hers.
 
And no one else gets to determine how she lives with what she has survived.
 
This song is also a declaration that reclamation can exist alongside grief, anger, chronic pain,
difficult memories, and days when simply living is enough.
 
You do not have to be completely healed to reclaim your boundaries.
You do not have to feel fearless to reclaim your voice.
You do not have to explain your past to reclaim your future.
 
Reclamation is not another healing assignment. It is the freedom to decide what belongs in your life and what no longer does.
 
Part of Julie's Listening First. Nothing Is Required. philosophy, This Is Reclamation honors bodily autonomy, self-respect, emotional independence, and the right to exist without apology.
 
It is a declaration for survivors who are choosing themselves, protecting their peace, and refusing to surrender their lives to the expectations of others.
 
I reclaim my voice without asking permission.
I reclaim my body without negotiation.
I reclaim my boundaries without guilt.
I reclaim my life without apology.
 
This is not surrender. This is not silence. This is reclamation.
 
My Voice. My Body. My Truth. My Life.
 
Listening First. Nothing Is Required.
 
© Julie Jewels Smoot. All rights reserved.