Forget Where You Came From

They say learning from our mistakes, taking the bad with the good and finding where you belong in this world is all a part of growing up.  Thinking about the painful words and experiences that I have endured thus far in my life, I feel like I just had some sort of an epiphany.  I'm going to end up exactly where I am supposed to and it has nothing to do with where I came from.

Years may go by and we may become older however a majority of the people around us will never learn from their mistakes, never accept the bad for what it is and most importantly will never understand where they belong in this big world.  What does it mean to truly be comfortable in your own skin?  One of the most difficult yet most rewarding journeys any of us could take will be finding who we truly are and where we are meant to be.

A conversation with someone I met for the first time today doesn't have me feeling like I've "known him forever," but more like I know how he's felt forever.  Recognizing how you change as a person is so enlightening.

In high school I was so superficial; always worried what others thought of me.  There finally came a point in time where I realized that no matter how hard I tried to please everybody and be who they wanted me to be, they'd still think what they wanted. 

I'd be an extremely wealthy woman if I had a dollar for every time my name was written on the walls and stalls of the women's bathroom at Otter Valley Union High School; and if you couldn't guess it was never about how pretty I was or my witty sense of humor.  The ironic part is that after using all that energy to try to bring me down I live an amazing life in beautiful south Florida, and in a couple years those people will probably be doing nothing but scrubbing those very words off in their janitorial positions.

But back to the intriguing individual I met tonight.  He said, "I could walk the red carpet at the hottest clubs in New York City, Los Angeles or Miami and be treated like royalty, but when I go to a local bar in my hometown I get treated like shit." 

It's like my conscience jumped out of my mind and into this person so they could say what I have been thinking for so long.  People say "don't forget where you came from," but why wouldn't we want to?  I know that the opinions of others used to shape what I thought I needed to be, but really they only pushed me away to find out who I truly was. 

I know who I am and who I never want to become, but most importantly I know this is where I am meant to be and I owe none of it to "remembering where I came from."