come as you are and let me love the real you - round re~minder magnet

come as you are and let me love the real you. round re~minder.

3.4" x 3.4" glossy finish

most of my life I acted like who I thought other people wanted me to be because most of my life people didn't like the "real me." i didn't really have friends until i was in my 30s. i had a hard time with social graces and boundaries. with years of working on myself, i am happy to say i am still friends with several of those lovely people i met back then.

many times in my life I have had love with people who were pretending to be someone they were not - be it platonic love or relationship love - they "pretended" to be a certain way with their words and just never quite got there with their actions. i was no different, really.

as a person with multiple chronic illnesses it was hard for me to "love myself exactly as i am" and re~minding myself that if i am who i truly am all the time, the people who dig that will show up, stick around, whatever.

if i come to the table as something other than myself, the people can't love the real me because they don't even know her. so when you show up to a friend, show up as who you truly want to be and let them love the real you.

friendships were challenging for me. as someone isolated a lot as a kid and living with undiagnosed narcolepsy for 11 of my formative years, and living through trauma, i didn't understand a lot about social graces and i felt needy and desperate for friends and that showed up in the way i walked through the world. eventually, through loving my real self, i was able to find the strength to no longer "need" people to like me.

i did a video about it. WATCH: what happens if i don't need people to like me? https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=qHMlzK82I1c