The above quote has been touring the internet for awhile, and the first time I saw it, it hit home pretty hard. I’ve run across it a few times and it hasn’t lost its punch.

This applies to me both personally and creatively. I was raised in a very conservative fringe religion, which I rejected in my late teens. I came out in early twenties and never looked back or played it straight. In my thirties, after leaving an emotionally abusive and controlling  relationship, I spent a long time working through my anger and rebuilding my self-esteem and friendships.

I’m not the writer I thought I’d be when I was a kid. But I’m not an automaton operating at the behest of misogynist gaslighting religionists, I’m not cowering in the closet, and I’m not afraid of doing the work it takes to not be an asshole. I fought hard not to become those things. Life would have been easier if I hadn’t had to. Maybe I would have been on that creative path I always dreamed about. But, that wasn’t the choice I was given.

I’m not yet the best version of myself, but I’m far from the worst.

When the going gets tough, when you feel that you haven’t made the progress you should have or you haven’t been as successful as you could have been, remember what you’re not. Celebrate who could have become but didn’t, whatever that means to you.

I’m tired of thinking about all that other crap, so today I’ll celebrate that I never became the person who quit.