Authenticity
Brings Freedom
Let's be real: you've followed all the rules, colored inside the lines, played the game. Maybe you even got the gold stars. But deep down, you're still asking, "Is this really it?"
You are not broken-- You're waking up. You are not too late or too lost to do something about it.
And I am so glad you are here.
I spent decades checking the boxes--wife, mom, teacher, churchgoer, rule-follower. From the outside, it looked like I was doing everything right. But inside, I was hiding. Hiding my truth.
My husband's mental illness and eventual death broke me open. It forced me to face myself. I wasn't living. I was performing.
Life Inside the Box
And I'm writing a book to tell that story
It isn't one that will give you the answers. It won't paint me in a pretty light. It's not going to be a self-help guide.
What it will be is real. Authentic.
The real story of what happens when you live life trapped in a box of following the rules. The story of a mental health system that is not working. The story of a great love that couldn't withstand the boxes we put ourselves in.
It's so many stories all in one. My hope is that you will find yourself in one of those stories, realizing that you are NOT alone.
I took away the filter. I am telling this story as it happened because you deserve to know that your behind closed doors moments, the ones where you think, no one else is going through this, are in fact the same as someone else's.
Healing
Writing this book is healing me, just as I hope reading it will heal a small piece of you.
Life happens. We make choices. We live a life we think we are supposed to live. We love hard. We suffer loss. Circumstances don't go our way.
But we always have the choice to heal from it. To learn, to grow, and to move forward, evolving into someone new because of it.
Moving Outside of the Box
I stopped.
I burned the box.
And I started over.
I've reinvented my life with nothing but a suitcase full of trauma, a whole lot of courage, hours and hours of therapy, and the decision to finally choose me.
Now I am building a life that actually feels like mine.
