“Pre-baby, I knew who I was. I had an idea of where I was heading. Imagine the shock I endured when I found out we had a tiny human en route. I was about to meet a completely new version of myself. My name was Mom, not Jess. I ate, slept, and breathed motherhood. I started to become more and more aware of my loss of identity.”
‘I can spend Friday night at a bar with my friends. I can go to mommy and me group. That is what moms do. We do it all.’: Woman reminds other mothers to ‘get to know YOU better’
‘We are merely surviving as we fight it. We are going from one doctor’s appointment to a test to another treatment. Let’s be honest, cancer SUCKS.’: Woman’s has realization in cancer journey, ‘Cancer did not take from me. I took from it.’
“We didn’t choose cancer. It chose us. Getting up was a choice.”
‘She didn’t sign any papers. Maybe I wasn’t given up. Perhaps, I was taken, or she was told I died.’: Adoptee searches for biological mother, answers to her past
“We were nationally unwanted children. It is not always the romantic picture of children being ‘saved.’ My only connection to my past is my genes.”
‘Up until that point, I’d lived a charmed life. Then tragedy struck. It was isolating. But they also didn’t throw a ‘pity party’ for me.’: Man credits resilience for getting him through ‘each of those dark days’
“My life was quickly thrown upside down. The love of my life was suddenly killed in a car accident. I handled it with anger and bitterness. The economy began to crumble. I quickly became the best possible cab driver I could be. Shifts were 12 hours long. I pulled my boots up and reinvented myself. Then everything changed again. The ginger ale sat on the kitchen counter, slowly turning into a bomb. At the exact second Shelly passed the sink, the bottle exploded. I was horrified. What a battle it has been.”
‘Stop crying tears over the group that doesn’t want you. Stop pleasing everyone. Stop thinking invitations from cool kids will make you feel complete.’: Woman’s encourages her younger self to ‘know you create your own happiness’
“Stop trying so hard, little girl. Know who you are. Know you are strong. Know you are smart. Know you have a voice, are capable and worthy. Know you’re never ever alone.”
‘We want friends who stick with us through our worst, but we bolt at the first sign of trouble.’: Woman’s candid take on being a ‘disloyal friend’
“We want friends who reach out and invite us, but we aren’t willing to be the one who takes the first step. We want friends who forgive, but we aren’t willing to be forgiving. Someone has one opinion you don’t like? Bye.”
‘Stop wasting so much time looking perfect. Stop wishing you were someone else. Stop crying those tears over the group that doesn’t want you.’
“Stop allowing other people’s opinions to blow you back and forth like a leaf in the wind. Stop thinking you’re not pretty enough. Stop thinking a boy will solve all your problems. Stop thinking invitations from the cool kids will make you feel complete.”
‘My husband’s heart may have stopped beating, but after he flat-lined, he was revived. ‘How do I cope?,’ I get asked a lot. It really stumped me.’
“My husband has an infamous (and rather annoying) saying he likes to toss around, ‘It could always be worse.’ This is usually met with an exaggerated eyeroll from me, because my realist personality believes the opposite. ‘It could always be better.'”
‘When I was 16 years old, I weighed 130 pounds. I felt like a cow. My friends were much smaller, and much slimmer. I always felt so unworthy. Sloppy. Lazy. Gross.’
“No matter how hard I tried, my size 8 body never fit into their size 2 clothes. I always felt so fat. My body has changed a lot. But my thoughts on my body have not. I’m still just as harsh. This has to stop.”
‘Before I became a mother, I had already labeled myself as not enough.’
“When the triplets were born I almost died. I remember feeling like I wasn’t enough, like I failed them because my first moments with them were through FaceTime.”
