I looked into the mirror and saw a girl. She was once young and pure and kind. SO full of life. I saw her face now, worn and wounded. Tear stained and broken. Expectations had bled her dry. Not the expectations from others necessarily, though those cast a heavy shadow, but rather the ones she placed upon herself. The expectations that she could achieve perfection. Be the perfect mother, wife, friend. Look perfect, act perfect, be quiet, cook well. A thousand calls to answer, a thousand calls too many.

She may be bruised and scarred, but she is awakening. She is expanding, realizing one very beautiful, magnificent, life changing fact, and that is this; it is all an illusion. All of it. There is no “perfect”. There is no way to be all, do all, end all. The girl in the mirror has everything she needs within herself. She is enough. She is tormented only because of her own perceptions, the world created within herself, the tapes that have played a thousand times without thought or question as to whether they hold any validity or value. She has all but broken HERSELF.

The girl in the mirror is powerful. So very powerful. She is her own savior, and through her discoveries has come to realize she no longer needs outside validation. She is a Phoenix rising, a song that is about to be sung. She has stumbled upon the life changing truth that being kind to herself is both brave and empowering. That even if the world screams a thousand judgements it is of no importance as long as she is her own best friend. It is only through accepting herself wholly and fully that the freedom and peace she has searched for all her life will find a home in her heart. That girl is beautiful, and she is becoming a woman. She has been her own worst enemy and survived. Now she looks in the mirror and sees what has always been true, her eyes are opened and she is awake and alive. She is my hero.