THE JOURNEY TO ACCEPTING MYSELF

I hid who I was from myself & the people around me for 17 years. It wasn’t until March of 2017 that I finally opened up and showed the world that who I had feelings for, wasn’t a man.

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Everything on the outside of my life looked perfect but on the inside everything didn’t make sense to me. Facing reality and what I thought would come with that, hurt. I knew I couldn’t ever change this large part of myself..

Self acceptance was the hardest part of it all. I just wanted to be Erin. The Erin everyone loved before the label, but you know what? I am still that girl.

A few years ago I was at a point in my life where if you didn’t like me or who I was, then I distanced myself. I had to recognize that this is my life and I was going to start taking control of who I am and want to be, no matter what society thought.

I had to own who I was, and to this day, I am still doing that.

I gave myself time to forgive my younger self for keeping her away from being true. All the years of being scared was comforted and lessoned by all of the love I was getting from my friends, family, coworkers, etc.

It is totally normal to feel hidden, scared, unseen, & more when it comes to accepting yourself in any way.

work on yourself. learn about the community. explore some more. and try and feel more about yourself. The more real and honest you can be with yourself, the more you will accept everything about you.

“Often, it’s not about becoming a new person, but becoming the person you were meant to be, and already are, but don’t know how to be.” — Heath L. Buckmaster, author