I´ve actually enjoyed this part of June´s journey myself. It´s been gradual even though she had someone like Moira as a friend. The first time she actually paid attention to a woman´s strength was after seeing Emily run down the guard.

We also saw a glimpse of this strength with Eden. She didn´t know June but she consciously chose to confide in her when she was scared by Nick disappearing on her at night. She didn´t choose Serena who´s pious and superior to her. She chose June because even as young as she is she recognised that June understood what it was like to have a life forced on you. That despite her new environment June might still be in there living inside Offred. As we later found Eden the 15yr old teenager with dreams of love and being a normal teenager was hidden deep inside the pious Gilead girl. Even when she was going to run away she wanted reassurance from June that choosing herself over Gilead was the right thing to do. Much like she´d ask a big sister if she had one.

I also appreciated how the writers removed Nick altogether from influencing June´s journey to self-reliance and self-discovery. Even the memory of her husband was removed as an influence. In episode S03E03(Useful) Lawrence uses her as a prop to show the other men why women can be useful to them by making her fetch a book. She literally broke down and felt humiliated by his action. It wasn't till she hit rock bottom before she learned anything from that experience. Only then does she start using Lawrence to advance her agenda rather than hope for him to pave the way for her. She tells him to make himself useful to the women and makes him fetch them the map. Even Janine has started to find her voice in the sisterhood rather than hide behind her trauma or behind Gilead´s beliefs about her worth.

I´d say my advice to you is to cut out people. You know who´s set in their ways. You know who doesn't really see you. You know who´s detrimental to your sense of self. You know who´ll be ridiculing your change of focus and making you feel like a fraud. You know the red signs. Don´t be afraid of being alone for awhile. Go to a different library for example. Get off at a different stop than you normally do. Have coffee in a different coffee shop than you normally choose. Do it until you no longer have shared interests with people you´d normally have gravitated towards before. There´s nothing wrong with the direction you´re taking. Don´t expect instant reward and you´ll never go wrong finding people you truly belong with. The same goes for family. Only keep the ones who accept you the way you are.