Hey y’all!
If you’re reading this, I am already actively cheering for you. I am a self-proclaimed recovering victim of the world of “just”, and so I don’t REALLY understand why you’ve made it this far in your reading. I wholeheartedly appreciate it…I just don’t understand why. Let me explain:
I am a Strong Southern Woman. I intentionally capitalized that because of the simple fact that, the Strong Southern Woman is a force. This is an entity all to itself. She is the lifeblood of her family unit. She is the glue. She is the matriarch, the last word, and the comforting shoulder for not only her blood family, but for her community. She is the council, the forgiver, and the accomplice to small transgressions, all wrapped into one. She is essentially the Alpha and the Omega of the family, if I may be so bold. The Strong Southern Woman ladies and gentlemen, is everything, and at the same time, is only part of the supporting cast, depending on your point of view.
I was raised in a family of Strong Southern Women (we will now call them SSW, for the sake of typing!). These women were vastly different in personality, but they all had or have one thing in common: their strength of character and grit. My family taught me many things: my work ethic (Nana, Cena, my Grandmother, and my Mama are especially responsible for this), my humility (yes, it really is ingrained in there y’all, stop judging!), and my love for others and the desire to work out resolutions with them. My family taught me the VALUE of other people, simply for being themselves. It’s a fundamental part of who I am now as an adult. Let’s just say, I LOVE the role models I was given growing up.
I was also taught to believe in myself. Now, not the meme-version “Believe in your dreams, and you can achieve anything” bullshit, but actually to believe in myself. I was raised with the expectation that you finish what you start. That you ask for help when you don’t know. That you use your resources to achieve the best results possible. Basically, that you don’t half-ass anything. Think of it as the “go big or go home” version of child rearing, and that was PERFECT for my particular brand of crazy-brain. I will always be immensely grateful for how I was raised, and for the strength my village gave me.
HOWEVER.
When you are raised to truly believe you can achieve ANYTHING…there can be some setbacks and pitfalls. ANYTHING is a big damn word y’all. It encompasses a whole metric ton of expectations. And some people (aka MEEEEE) can initially read “anything” to mean “any damn thing”. As in, you’re still breathing, you’ve accomplished anything! Good job! While everyone has moments in their life where breathing is IN FACT, a worthy accomplishment, it should never be the end goal. I was not RAISED that way…I simply chose to INTERPRET that way for a while. I’m off point a little, but you get the idea.
Somehow, somewhere, sometimes (let’s face it, a LOT of times), a person gets off track from their original purpose. And it takes a DIFFERENT VILLAGE to bring them back to their truth. I am one of these “lost souls” y’all. It’s hard to admit that, but this is about truth, so there’s the truth. I got lost. Even with all those amazing role models….I got lost. And this, at its core, is the story of how I found my way back.
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