“Marriage isn’t always two people who are on the same team. We are not always on the same page, and we do not always like each other. But we made a vow to make this work, and that is what we are doing.”
‘I got home and literally nothing from the grocery list I gave him was in the bags. Not a damn thing.’: Woman urges ‘show your partner grace through the struggles’
‘Her boyfriend told my photographer, AT MY WEDDING, ‘Yeah, I don’t really like Harley.’ I’m not close with any of my bridesmaids.’: Woman urges ‘some friendships end because they need to’
“I got married at 20; we were all young. My friend and I were literally making up from a fight when I told her I was getting married. ‘Will you be my maid of honor?’ I asked. She and I stopped talking after the wedding. Some friends are lifelong, and some are temporary.”
‘Sometimes saying ‘I’ve had enough’ is the most generous thing you can do for yourself.’: Woman urges ‘not every relationship is salvageable’
“Walking away from a toxic situation, environment, or person doesn’t mean you are ‘giving up’ or ‘overreacting.’ It simply means the pros no longer outweigh the cons. Sometimes, walking away is the healthiest thing you can do.”
‘If I’m so smart, why aren’t I a success yet?’ I was so hung up on this idea of what success was, I didn’t care if I was happy.’: Woman urges ‘you are a success in your own right’
“If your childhood was anything like mine, you grew up with your parents saying you were going to ‘be something’ one day. I was so hung up on this idea of what ‘success’ was. A 9-5 Monday through Friday gig, making more than $70,000 a year. I didn’t care if I was happy, as long as the job matched those criteria.”
‘My husband texted me a photo of her, sitting in the doctor’s office getting her pink cast on with her Mom. My heart hurt, but I couldn’t express it.’: Stepmom says the key is to ‘step up, step back, and step over’
“I burst into the tears during that scene and immediately excused myself to get more popcorn. I would give my two cents on Joe’s response to a text or an e-mail. Joe and I would end up fighting about a conflict that wasn’t between us to begin with! In the words of my dear friend Elsa… ‘Let it GO!’”
‘I didn’t know there was a problem. If she’d been honest and said, ‘Hey, I don’t like you hanging out with my ex,’ we could have worked it out.’: Woman navigates adult friendships, boundaries after friends’ break up
“My friends Tina and Conner broke up. I won’t go into detail, but we all know the saying, ‘There are 3 sides to every story — his, hers, and the truth.’ Is it wrong to want to remain friends with a friend’s ex? He and my husband were friends, and honestly, we missed hanging out with the guy.”
‘It’s been 4 years since we last spoke. I heard you met someone new. Am I the bad guy, or does she know the truth and love you anyway?’: Woman abandoned by father says ‘you can’t base your self-love on who loves you’
“My dad walked out of my life when I was 20 and never looked back. I wonder if you saw me in the street, would wave or just keep walking. See, all of my favorite things about myself are you. Your sense of humor, your ability to make friends, and really, really good hair. I call someone else ‘my dad’ now.”
‘After rehab, I manipulated my mom into dropping me off at a bar. ‘I’m not an alcoholic.’ I got drunk and high that night.’: Woman overcomes heroin and alcohol addiction, ‘God put me on this earth to make an impact’
“I knew nothing about heroin. But I did it. That missing feeling I had inside of me for so long was gone. It felt warm and like I was being hugged. It felt like I had arrived. In my mind, I was a heroin addict, not an alcoholic. I got drunk and got high that night. I would share needles with whoever. I found out I had contracted Hepatitis C. One of my best friends, who I used with, had been sober for 18 months. If she could do it, so could I.”
‘Mom, I’m an atheist.’ Our family is deeply religious. He appeared to be bracing himself for a battle.’: Christian mom says ‘I will love and accept my son NO MATTER WHAT’
“All I had to say was, ‘I could not be more proud of the man you are becoming.'”
‘I honestly thought this would be easier by now. How in the world am I still this exhausted?’: Mother kept waiting for raising children to get easier, it never came
“Heck, even my own parents made it look effortless. But I’m not raising me. And it’s a different time. And all that….blah, blah, blah. So here I am, still figuring it out day to day just like when I had a newborn.”
