“I erupted like a volcano, spewing anger at her tiny 4-year-old body. I can hear the bully I am being. Then she matter-of-factly said, ‘I was too scared to ask you for a piece of paper so I colored on the table instead.’ The very first thing I said was, ‘thank you for telling me the truth.’ I noticed how mean I’ve been. I have realized I’m being unfair. I needed a change.”
‘I’m too scared to tell you because you’ll get mad.’ They’ve been cowering every time I ask, ‘what happened here?’ They’ve been lying!’: Mom implements ‘safe zone’ for kids after realizing she’s been bullying them for bad behavior
‘It’s been a hard year. Just take the next breath. Make the next decision. Keep going, even when everything within you is begging you to stop.’: Woman reminds us to keep pushing through, even when ‘life as you knew it ceases to exist’
“When you get the diagnosis. When the relationship completely falls apart. When mental illness becomes a real thing, not just something you hear about. When the company downsizes. When that person who was supposed to be there, isn’t. As you dig yourself out of the rubble, look back with lessons learned. Sometimes it takes the worst things to wake us up to the best things.”
‘Maybe 2019 wasn’t your year. Pat yourself on the back, look at yourself in the mirror, and tell yourself you made it.’: Woman claims ‘it’s never too late for a new beginning’ in the New Year
“Maybe you never lost that 15 pounds, or paid off that credit card debt. You never got that dream job or organized your linen closet. Or your life. You didn’t open a book daily or drink enough water. Maybe 2019 will not go down as the year that will be remembered forever. But if you’ve accomplished nothing more than living 365 days this year, that’s okay. Completely okay.”
‘I’d be single and a virgin forever. ‘The boys called me ‘big girl.’ I’d never be able to be naked in front of a lover.’: Woman loses 115 pounds after drug addiction, traumatic childhood, ‘I regret nothing, I finally had an opportunity to blossom’
“‘Are you using drugs again?,’ one of my professors asked me. I am a recovering drug addict, who lost 115 pounds and changed my entire life. I had a girl assume I was sick, a close friend expressed to me that I ‘took the easy way out.’ The smaller I got, the more attention I got, the more confused I was. I had sex for the first time after my dad died with a guy who blocked my number the day after he took my virginity. I wanted to stop hating myself, I wanted to be genuinely happy.”
‘By chance, I met his school counselor. She was a sweet lady with long dark hair and a petite build. ‘What are you doing currently?,’ she asked. I sheepishly admitted, ‘I dropped out.’
“Right then and there she dragged me back to her office. I was screwed. 8 a.m. was my deadline. I had four days to finish a semester and a half worth of work. I ran there.”
‘I got a call from my dad. In a moment of panic, I blurted quickly, ‘Dad, I’m pregnant.’ There was radio silence on his end. I remember thinking it would never get easier.’
“The friends I had gone to high school with tore me apart online for posting a picture of my baby and saying I loved him. ‘How can you say you love him when you didn’t even want him,’ they wrote. ‘You didn’t even want to be a mom.’”
‘It was only yesterday we were reckless and 18, and now we have an entire world of responsibility. Time is never guaranteed.’
“Since the age of 13 when I began to crave that drivers license, 16 when I began to crave freedom, 18 when I began to crave independence, I’ve been wishing to be further ahead in time. If only we knew how fast the time would actually go.”
‘I sank deep into my insecurities. Stop talking so much. People don’t like that. Tone it down. You come off as too much. Don’t be so ‘you.’
“I knew everything that was wrong with me. I didn’t need a list to point them out in black and white. I’d known since I was little. And I was over it. 35 years of that mess was enough. So, I deleted everything, and I started blank.”
‘This is not my year to run a marathon, drink 2 gallons of water a day, or make healthy, home-cooked meals. It is my year to survive.’: Mom shares candid goal for the new year
“This year, I’m laying it all down. I can’t. The truth is, I’m in the weeds. Some years aren’t meant to be record-breaking. Some years are meant to survive.”
‘I mentioned how different my hair felt. Her eyes widened as she touched my head. My thick blonde locks were noticeably thinner.’: Mom learns important lesson in not letting stress consume your life
“That day at the hair salon was pivotal. As I sat with foils covering my head, I knew I had to make some changes. For so many years I had put others before me, it was time to take control of my life.”
