Don’t let tragedy keep you small.
If you’ve been through a traumatic situation, sometimes it becomes the defining story of your life. You might live with the narrative that you were abused as a child. Or you might not be able to let go of how you were bullied, or poor, or from a disenfranchised background. These are indeed terrible, difficult things to live through, but it is important that what happened to you in the past does not become the entirety of your story. You are an amazing, powerful, transformative being. You hold the power to change your story, your ending and your narrative. If you don’t like the way this life is progressing, change it. You can. I know you can.
I was seven when my genitals were mutilated by my well-meaning GP under the approval of my parents. This was seen as a requirement.
I lived through civil war and saw people being brutally burned to death in front of me. I’ve seen bodies floating down rivers. I’ve been bullied, called all kinds of names by family, and rejected so many times it is amazing I can still keep going. But I do keep going. I do pick myself up, reinvent myself and soar once more.
And if I can do it, so can you. We are no different, you and I. We are magnificent and the things that don’t kill us only make us fight and strive and thrive. Take your tragedy and trauma and make it the thing that you rise above. Use it to give you wings to fly.
I went through female genital mutilation and now I work with women to empower women. I lived through three decades of civil war and so I believe passionately in love, in unity, in standing together in the face of adversity.
I was always the awkward only child, the cousin the others didn’t trust because I was too much of a book-worm and too much influenced and controlled by my mother, and so I create around me a circle of sisters who care, who support and encourage. I wanted siblings and so I went out into the world and found them in Poland, in Slovakia, in England.
You can do anything you desire. And if you need the help, the tools and the accountability to get things done, that is available too. The only thing stopping you is fear. But you can, for you are amazing.