* Who Am I?

I have always loved to read biographies. When I was a child, I think I read every single one in our elementary school library. The lives of other people fascinated me, especially when I learned about many of the issues they had to overcome in order to accomplish great things in life.

In Viola Davis’s autobiography Finding Me, she tells the story of actor Will Smith asking her who she was? She answered by telling him he knew her work as an actor but he persisted and asked again, “But who are you?” That’s when she realized she was still that scared little kid who grew up in poverty. Reading that brought me to tears with my own realization of who I really am. When things scare me and I don’t know what to do, I’m still the little chubby girl in elementary school who no one wanted on their kickball team. That’s where I go when I am unsure of myself. That little girl still lives inside me and until I accept her and deal with her fears, I’ll always go back there.

I need to let that little girl know that she is okay and that she’s a lot stronger than she thinks! She may not have been one of the popular kids, but she was smart and she was a survivor for enduring all that hurt. That survivor instinct has helped her become a cancer thriver who pushes on in spite of the pain and hurt.

As we begin a new year today, stop and ask yourself, who am I? Don’t focus on who you were, decide who you are and go be that person for today and the future.

Happy New Year! Cindy J