Sometimes it's hard to see the truth when you've been fed lies all of your life.

I was in a (mentally) abusive relationship for a very long time. My ex told me that no one else would ever love me. He found every opportunity to gas light me, and criticize me. He said that I was worthless, useless, a bad mother and a bad wife. He drilled that into my head day after day after day for fifteen years. And I believed him. I've been away from him for almost two decades, I'm in a good relationship, and my children are all grown up and happy...and I still sometimes believe the lies he told me.

It is so hard to cast off the lies that are repeated to you day in and day out. Hard to see possibilities outside of the one you were taught to believe. Hard to understand that you are worth more than your sex, or your race, or your religion especially when everyone around you seems so obsessed with it.

We are complex and wonderful human beings with more to us than any one aspect. More to us than the genes we were born with, or the life we were born into. It is our character, our strength, our determination that set us apart. We just have to be willing to allow ourselves to see outside the life we were given, and chase after the life we desire.