Free to be Me

By Clarissa Enos Plagmann

I'm done. I'm done living my life to impress others. I'm done trying to stay in contact with people who obviously don't want to remain in contact. I'm done trying to live up to this illusion of who people think I am and who they think I should be.

I am ready to embrace myself. I am ready to embrace my dreams and stop being so scared of the outcome. I am ready to do what is best for me and for my family over what sounds cool or easy or what sounds like what people want me to be or do. I am ready to show up and be the best wife and mom (in that order) that I can be.

How am I going to do this, you ask? Well, I'm not exactly sure, but I do know I will be placing my trust and my love in God and my husband. I will stop trying to justify my decisions to people that don't matter. I will start sticking up for my decisions, and the decisions my husband and I make together for our family and I'll try not to care or feel upset or anxious about what other people think about those decisions.

In short, I will try to be the best person I can be, and stop being the person I think everyone else wants me to be. Because that is what I hope to teach my daughter.