I'm going to start off by saying that I know everyone has their own demons that they fight. Life smacks you in the face every now and then, or if you're like me, your luck just seems to be non-existent and you face a different dilemma twice a day. What I am getting at is that no matter how many dilemmas or no matter how many difficult decisions I face, the one thing that I keep in the back of my mind is this saying my dad showed me. When I was about 17 my dad sent me this picture with a quote and it said, "The lion never loses sleep over the opinion of a sheep." When I was younger, I never fought to stand up for myself or ever tried to be my own person and when my dad sent me this picture, it just clicked. I am the lion and I should never stoop to a sheep's level.

I reference back a lot to when I was a teenager because when I look back at myself, I am just so astonished by how afraid I was of being a person. I never talked to people when I didn't have to, I worried about things that shouldn't of even needed a second thought and I did everything I could to avoid conflict. I let anyone and everyone walk all over me and honestly I didn't mind.

The quote my dad sent me just sort of made something in me click. The words were just so powerful to me that I took this picture and framed it in my room so I could look at it all the time. I became obsessed these words. I wanted so badly to become a lion. I wanted to be something that people admired and looked up to. But I realized that to be someone that others looked up to, I had to look up to myself first.

It wasn't until I graduated high school and started college that I really began to think of myself as a valuable person. I not only began my freshman year of college, but I began living on my own and became my own person. For the first time, I had a large amount of friends and I was invited to things and people accepted me, which was something I really needed. Granted most of the friends I made my first year are no longer my friends but they are a huge reason that I learned to love myself. I had craved this sense of feeling that I needed to be accepted by others, but that wasn't true. I needed myself to accept me.

I learned how to stand my ground and know that I had a right to my own opinion too. I gained this sense of pride when I told people that I wasn't going to put up with their s***. I became confident by just looking in the mirror and telling myself that I didn't need anyone telling me I was pretty. I stopped worrying about what my clothes, my makeup or my hair looked like to others and started wearing clothes that were more for me and didn't care when I didn't put on makeup.

So when I think of that quote, I know that I did become the lion. I do not care what others think of me because that does not define me. I define me and I know now that I am enough because I said I was enough. I didn't need another person whispering in my ear saying that I was desirable, I needed myself to tell me that. And I do now, everyday.