Stories

Last night, Torri and I went to dinner again. The conversation was really great; we talked about how hard it is sometimes to share our own stories for fear of what the other person will think. We'll say to ourselves, "Maybe if they know this, they won't like me." Yep, I used to think this all the time. I remember in the past, I'd squirm around and get nervous, while speaking about something personal that I felt was negative. I never got that these stories are a part of who I am and the life lessons I needed to have to move forward. I'm not nervous at all now. It's really freeing to have a conversation from nothing and to not have to anticipate any type of reaction because I know it doesn't make me any less of a person. We unconsciously and consciously do things to learn what our next steps should be and whether or not it was positive or negative, it doesn't matter because it's just preparation for things to come. And, because I get this for myself, it's very easy to not pass judgment on others based on a story that happened along the way of who they are today. Learning from the past makes us stronger. There's nothing to be ashamed of, we choose our own paths and we chose them because we wanted them in that moment. It's whether or not we can break away from the shame, to learn from each lesson we create, and apply it to our lives and how we affect other people. Once we do that, we're free again and our stories come to an end. I love that!