There are so many aspects to being independent. Some are positive and some may be negatively construed. An independent woman is sometimes interpreted as someone who can’t ask for help or someone who is too prideful. While these things may be true, it isn’t always the case. Sometimes being an incredibly independent person is just who you are. Sometimes it may be hard to express this characteristic to the people that are always around you, but if they know you well enough, then they come to realize it is just another reason to love you.
Being an independent person can stem from many different life experiences. When you were younger, you probably had incredibly hard working parents who taught you what it meant to be able to take care of yourself before attempting to even understand how to take care of others. A little bit of selfishness went a long way because at the end of the day, you were taught to only rely on yourself in order to be successful. Slowly you learned that isn’t necessarily true and being able to ask for help is also a mark of a strong and independent person. If that wasn’t the case then you’ve probably seen or lived through something that has impacted you and forced you to take control of your life or the lives of the people in your family. Life experiences taught you a lot about the power of individuality and what it meant to be held accountable for things that you didn’t necessarily have any control over. If those two things don’t sound familiar then maybe you are just fiercely independent because that is your personality and it is what makes you great.
When you went off to college, one of the only things that family and friends were worried about was your independence. Was it going to get you in trouble? Were you going to be able to understand when you needed help? All good questions that you had to consider when you decided to take the ultimate step towards independence. College was just another lesson that taught you the importance of being able to ask for help. At first it was hard. For so long you had learned to rely on yourself to get ahead. Life, up until this point, was a competition, and college became a breath of fresh air in which you realized that everyone is in this together and the only competition you have is yourself. The competitor that you had to compete against was your own brain that would tell you that you didn’t need to go to your professor’s office hours because if you studied just a little bit harder then you would achieve the grade you wanted. Beating that competition included being able to accept the help from others that are more knowledgeable than you.
My hope is that every dangerously independent person learns to be able to ask and accept help because that is the greatest sign of strength and independence that one can ever achieve.
