The lists are appearing everywhere – in one friend’s blog, then another, then another. “Things I Like About Me.”
It’s a link-up hosted by Elena at Ciao Mom, who I first met when I told my Reclaiming Me story.
I think this is a great idea. We need to acknowledge the good things about ourselves – the things we like, and that make us who we are. And doing it out loud is even better.
I’ll admit when I first saw this I thought it would be a pretty easy list for me to make. Despite a blog full of evidence to the contrary, I’m okay with who I am (and here’s where I give credit to my parents). I have my faults and things I would change, just like everyone does, and I’m not perfect 😉 but I do generally like me.
So I’ve been thinking for a couple of days about what I would include on this list. Some things come easily to mind, but I want to include the things that have made my particular struggle so hard and that I’ve learned to embrace about myself. So with that introduction here is my list of things I like about me:
- Â Damn, this is harder than I thought. That’s what I get for being cocky.
Take 2:
- I like that I’ve found the strength to be open about my experience with postpartum depression. That has been really empowering.
- I like that even though this whole journey has been a gigantic pile of crap, to put it mildly, I am finding meaning and purpose in it.
- I like that I have big dreams and I’m brave enough and confident enough to pursue them, even if that’s not the usual path and what I “should” do.
- I like that in my professional career I have never taken a job and just done what’s expected. I’ve always aimed to do more and do better and I think it’s something that’s just in me – I never realized it until I looked back on years of this pattern.
- I like my writing style. After 7 months of an onslaught of other voices in the blog world, I have stayed true to who I am and to my own voice. And I kept writing, even when some of the stuff was so personal I worried what people would think when they read it.
- I like that I’m a fatalist – I believe what’s meant to be will be. But I don’t just accept what happens (see: last 3 years of denial and stubbornness), I look for meaning in things because I believe it’s there and my life will be better if I keep learning.
- I like that I don’t hold grudges.
- I like that I am really, really good at being diplomatic when it’s necessary. Seriously, I rock at this.
- I like my eyes.
- I like that I can get totally into something and let it inspire me (see: horrible vlog about my obsession with birds).
- I like that one of the things I spend a lot of time thinking about is how to support others. I don’t always know how, and sometimes I can’t do it, but it’s hugely important to me. If I can find a way to do that and make money, I’ll be set and happy for life.
- I like that I’ve kept running, even though it was brutally hard in the beginning and I thought I was going to die when I ran my first 10k. And two months after I had a really bad training stint where I could have given up I decided not to and instead trained for (and ran) a half marathon. And then two more back to back.
- I like that in many circles I’m known for my love of chocolate.
- I like that I can say “I love you” to people I’ve never met and mean it.
