Care Is a Skill (And You Can Learn It)
- Dain August
- Apr 7
- 2 min read
Taking care of yourself isn’t something you’re born knowing—it’s something you build.
I think I’ve always known this, in some way but it really clicked when I was about 14 and was walking into high school, realizing something I couldn’t unsee.
That I could take care of myself better, in the ways I needed, than my parents ever could.
And that distinction mattered.
Because it meant I wasn’t stuck.
It meant I could build something different.
I knew the person I wanted to be was someone who worked hard enough to leave Minnesota at 18. Someone who could get as far away as possible from what I had seen growing up.
Not just physically but internally too.
I wanted to make a better life for myself.
And somewhere in that, I realized:
Care isn’t something you either have or don’t.
It’s something you learn.
Care, for me now, looks a lot simpler than people make it.
It’s not glamorous.
It’s brushing my teeth well.
Moisturizing.
Taking my vitamins.
Taking my Adderall when I need it.
It’s cleaning my space so my brain can breathe.
Throwing out things I don’t use anymore.
It’s walking into a room and knowing where my boundaries are but still being open enough to see if something real could form.
It’s planning my workflow so my life doesn’t feel like chaos.
It’s small things.
But done consistently, they change how I see myself.
They let me look in the mirror and recognize who I am becoming.
I think one of the biggest misconceptions about care is that it’s expensive.
That it’s something reserved for people who already have everything figured out.
But that’s never made sense to me.
Because most of the things that have changed my life haven’t been expensive.
They’ve been intentional.
They’ve been small shifts done over and over again.
Care isn’t luxury.
It’s skill.
And like any skill, it can be learned.
That’s something I want to keep building toward.
Not just for myself but outward.
Finding ways to make life feel better, simpler, more manageable.
Creating things that actually help people take care of themselves in real, tangible ways.
Because we should all have access to that.
We should all be able to become people we’re proud of.
And it doesn’t start with everything.
It starts with one small act of care.
And then another.
And then another.
Live Soft & Boldly Brave.
— Dain
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