Photo by Graca Assane on Unsplash
Shaping My Identity
Today is my last blog for Step Up for Mental Health® and I wanted to end on a personal note.
One thing that’s been heavy on my mind lately is all of the things I’ve endured in my life. Why have I had to deal with these things? I haven’t talked much in the blog about the fact that I’m a Christian. I’m a minority in almost every sense of the word. I’m disabled. I’m African American. I’m a woman. I am a sexual abuse survivor. I have other identities that I am still trying to become comfortable enough to embrace. And I want it to be clear that am not ashamed of the identities that I’ve listed. They’ve all shaped me into the person I am today. Still, I’ve pondered the question of why I had to go through all of these things and live this specific life. Why me?
Throughout my childhood, I felt as if I didn’t belong. I was one of the few 10-year-olds carrying baggage, but now that I am a young adult, I see that is not the case. Because of my upbringing, I have the ability to relate to numerous people.
Finding Strength
Being a trauma baby is the only thing one of my closest friends and I have in common. We’ve both been to hell and back but we don’t focus on that. We don’t constantly wallow in our trauma. We’ve learned to adapt. I know how to help her when she’s feeling depressed. She knows how to help me when I have an anxiety attack. We know how to make each other better without judging one another. Our trauma has made us stronger. When we encounter someone who needs a little pick me up, we are strong enough to continue to hold ourselves up while also helping them pick up the pieces.
It has been amazing being able to write to you guys for the past few years. I hope I was able to help pick up the pieces in tough times. If I’m going to leave you with any message, I want to tell you that you are strong. This blog doesn’t focus on mental illnesses. We “Step up for Mental Health” because we want to celebrate the strength that we’ve gained from our setbacks. We are so much more than the things that we’ve been through. We are more than our “disabilities”. And if you don’t gain anything from any of the blogs I’ve written, I hope this is the one message that you don’t forget.
