“I remember thinking, this isn’t how it’s supposed to be. It is supposed to be easy, fun, light, bright, full. But I was feeling dread, heavy, scared, unsure. It was the first time I really felt let down by life. I was young and had some idealistic thoughts of what life was going to look like. Or at least what it should look like. I couldn’t imagine what could possibly come next, what with this bursting of the bubble that I thought was life?”

“I didn’t know it but my feelings of failure were actually making me feel like I was a huge failure. I also had a big gap in my ability to like and have faith in myself. I think that’s why I compared myself so much to others. I went several years taking steps forward, steps backward, and constantly telling myself there was something wrong with me.” 

“For the umpteenth day in a row I woke up and thought about the truth and what I needed to do about it…”