Your choices define you, Your choices define your character and Your choices make you.

Pretty powerful statement don't you think? It took me a while to understand that the person I was becoming is because of the choices that I decided to make. I believe that no matter the choice you make, you will always end up exactly where you are suppose to -- the path you choose just might mean it takes you longer to get there. That is okay, it is not only the journey that defines who you are, but it also the people and the choices you make along the way that shape who you are. I'd like to say that the choices I have made have defined not only my character, but who I am as a person. As much as the choices have defined me, I think I have defined the obstacles that have been thrown my way. In life, there are no guarantees, no second chances and no do-overs to make things right. The only thing that is almost certain is the world continues to turn, your life continues to move forward and there are endless possibilities for you to become a better person.

Too often I hear people say " well, I wish I wouldn't have made that choice, I made a mistake." Lets just be honest a life without mistakes is a life that is boring and makes for a really bad story. If you wouldn't make bad choices you'd have nothing to share and you'd have no battle scars. What is the fun in that? We are all beautifully flawed and we all make beautiful mistakes and sometimes it takes years for us to realize the bad choices we made are the most beautiful ones not because of the pain, but because of the lesson. I have made mistakes, I have bad choices and I have dated some really shitty people who I let hurt me. I can admit all this now because I accept my choices, I accept who I am and I don't give a crap if you like me or not. I realize others aren't so accepting of who they are and the choices they make. I have also realized that life is too short to care if someone likes you, to not be honest with yourself and to others and to not forgive yourself for the mistakes and the "choices" you made.

Here's three things I've learned about accepting yourself and the choices you've made.

1.) People are always looking for acceptance from someone whether that be your family, the random person in your class, you significant other it doesn't matter who because we are all looking for acceptance. I have learned that acceptance is something you received when you got into college and it shouldn't apply to your life any longer. If you are looking to have everyone accept your every choice, your every decision and ultimately who you are as a person then you need to step back and look at yourself and make the choice to no longer give a crap who accepts you. Accept this: accept you are you, accept you are different and accept that fact that people aren't always going to accept you and accepting to simply accept is beautiful.

2.) You are more. Each of us has to make the choice to decide that we are simply more. We deserve more, we deserve to be treated more and we deserve to have someone say we are their more. Too often we lose sight in the fact that making the choice to doubt ourselves and to doubt our choices is not a good choice. There will be people who doubt you, who think you are no good and think that you should be treated like garbage. Please respect yourself by respecting the fact that sometimes you need to take out the garbage in your life and by that I mean the people who are starting to smell like fish. Respect yourself by making the choice to believe that you should Command to be heard, Command to be respected and Command to have someone understand that you are more, you deserve more and you will not stop fighting until you receive more. Make the choice, be the choice and fight for your choices.

3.) Your choices define you: You are you and you shouldn't want to be anyone else. I tell my sister that why be just another rock when you could be a diamond and shine? Anyone can go in their back yard and pick up a rock but no one can just go in their backyard and pick up a diamond. You are meant to shine, you were meant to do great things and just because you make a couple of bad choices doesn't make you a bad person-- it makes you human, it makes you flawed and it makes you different from the rest of us. Your choices take you down a path, a path that will define you, break you and mold you into this person who is unstoppable but before that can happen you have to let go of the haters, let go of the garbage in your life and let go of anything negative you hold against yourself.

I'll leave you with this:

Someone powerful once said the most powerful woman is the woman who simply doesn't care about others, the woman who makes choices, accepts those choices and says to hell with what anyone else thinks, she wears her scars proudly, and she embraces the bad choices because those bad choices have made her wiser.