Preview to my book: Overcoming Miss Piggy

*For those of you who don't know, I decided to attempt writing a memoir.  I started it a year ago, and have only written two chapters.  This book is a very emotional piece for me to write because I don't want to step on anyone's toes.  Currently, I'm stuck on whether or not to finish it.  That's where you come in...  I've posted the "Prologue" below that will help readers understand somewhat of the purpose of me writing it - to vent basically as therapy.  So, read and enjoy, and then let me know what you think!!*

 PROLOGUE

What truly makes a person who they are?  How do they obtain their personal identity? 

Do they become who they are because of how they believe?  Because of how they were raised?  Or because of the influences in their lives? 

Does a person become who they are because it is what they want or because it is what someone else wants them to be?

Think about yourself. 

When you were a young child did you plan on being who you are today?  Did your parents influence your dreams for life?  Or, maybe it was your family or friends.

Each of us becomes who we are for one of these reasons.  Maybe we were told at a young age that we would were very good at drawing, therefore, leading us to become an artist or an architect.  Maybe we were told we were compassionate and good with children, thus, causing us to think we should become a teacher.  Maybe we were told we were good with tools, medical terminology, arguing, or questions which in turn influenced us to become mechanics, doctors, lawyers, or journalists.

Not only can what we are told at a young age manipulate us into something for the good of our life, but it can sometimes cause a negative affect.  This has been the case in my life.

Do not get me wrong.  I have had a very good life.  I was always taken care of, given what was needed to survive and be spoiled, and I was even encouraged to follow my dreams for my future.  Everyone had faith that I would become who or what I wanted to become.

However, from an early age I was told different things about myself from family, friends, and classmates that would change who I was on the inside for the rest of my life.  Although these people never realized what they said to me was making a negative impact, these comments eventually began to haunt my life and alter my personal image of myself.

There are not many life changing experiences that I do not associate with the joking words of these people who did not realize that I was taking to heart what they said.  Due to their thoughts, opinions, and insulting comments (at times) of me, I have lived a life where I felt I was not good enough. 

Yes, I knew my family and friends loved and cared about me, but because of the things said to me I always felt like a disappointment.  I was always encouraged to become who I wanted to be, but I never understood how I could reach my full potential when I was not thought to be the perfect person everyone expected me to be. 

As a result of the way my family and friends thought and talked about me, I knew they believed me to be smart and able to succeed in life.  However, I never felt like I was good enough for them or able to be fully accepted. 

These comments said in a nonchalant way to me were to become the influences for shaping my life and the way I lived it.  These comments were to become my personal identity.  For that reason, it is fair for me to say that I became the person I have been because of believing what others have told me I was instead of what I truly believed about myself.

If is for these reasons, that I have written this book.  It has taken me 27 years to go beyond what everyone has told me that I am and finally realize what I really am.  This has been a long, winding road that has had many ups and downs of a hill that I have had to travel.  Nevertheless, I have been lucky enough to find my true self before the majority of my life was spent living up to everyone else’s expectations. 

Some people are not as lucky as I have been to realize this.  Some go on living and being what everyone else has pressured them into becoming.  This is a very sad life to live.  Trust me, I know.  I have been through it.  I have felt like a disappointment to my family and friends for the greater part of my life. 

However, that is all over now.  My real journey in life is now beginning because I have finally found myself.  I am who I am today because it is who I want to be!