"Exploring the Lessons Learned: Reflections on My Journey"

Although the picture above may seem a bit silly, I decided to include it here because my "inner teen" was thrilled about being at the iconic Whisky a Go Go in Hollywood. In the past, my experience at that venue would have been quite different. I would have likely ended up heavily intoxicated, with little recollection of the night, and wouldn't have had the opportunity to access the stage or backstage areas. :) My journey has been transformative, leading me to be featured in a book alongside Lisa Nichols (one of my idols), being on stage at the Whisky, and cultivating enough self-love to be fully present in realizing my dreams.

After my chapter was published in the book "Against All Odds," I have been contemplating the evolution of my connection with my own story.

Initially, I told parts of my story as fodder while drunk in bars. I thought the fact that I had jumped from one rooftop to another, evading the cops, was hilarious, or the one that I shared in the book about sleeping under a train would entertain with its shock factor.

After I got sober, I felt completely detached from those events, as though they had happened to someone else. My therapist at the time told me that it was a trauma response, if I remember correctly.

At some point, the feelings about those events began to surface. They were not pleasant. I realize now that I had to reach a place where I was ready for that level of intensity. I don't think I could have handled the enormity of the truth of all I had survived without the level of healing I had achieved up to that point.

I am happy to say that I can now look back on it all and feel peace around it. For a long time, I wanted to bury my past six feet under a swamp full of alligators. Or something. I ran from myself and my story for a long time, afraid to face it. When I stopped running, I felt broken inside and wasn't capable of helping anyone, including, it felt like, myself. I certainly haven't done it alone. I see now how instead of using it as fodder in bars, I can use it to help other women who may be running from themselves or who feel broken by their own stories. Just as other women extended a hand to me in my darkness, I can do the same for the women coming after me in theirs. I am truly grateful for the blessings in my life. I never want to take them for granted.

If any of this resonates, please let me know in the comments. Take good care of yourself and I hope you are making your own dreams come true.