Un-betaed

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Take hold (an original story)

Millicent Brennan is a well-established and respected businessperson in her community.  She worked hard for many years to build her company and earn her success, but she holds a secret.  A secret kept from every one in her life.  Today something happened that brought her world to a halt.  She has no idea what to do to cross this bridge from the pain she feels to some level of relief. So with no clue what to do she decides to reexamine her life to determine just where she took the wrong turn in this journey.

(Millicent reevaluates)

Take as many years as you would like to come to the point of arranging your life in such neat order that you account for every minute and every second of your day. Every piece of clothing that you wear, every morsel of food that you eat and every bit of news that you view reflect someone else’s opinion and not yours.

As a child you started out on the right path of finding your own way.  You made your own choices and suffered the consequences but as you grew you retreated into your shell and allowed others to decide for you.  That incident in middle school when your best friend told you that she could no longer be your friend because you did not ‘fit’ in.  That crushed you and from that moment you decided to change yourself to ‘fit’ in.  You changed what you wore, you changed your hair, you changed what you ate, which movies you saw and you changed the way that you talked.  You did all of this to ‘fit’ in.

But was it enough?  When those around you told you that you were fat you stopped eating and fainted.  So you started eating again and started running. Then they said that you were too thin.  When you changed your hair they said that you were a ‘sell out’ and then when you changed it again they said that you were too ‘ethnic’.  When you changed what you wore they said that you had no style and then when you changed again they said that you thought that you were better than the rest of them.

Now with social media more people can criticize what you wear, what you eat, where you go, how you talk.  You put yourself out there on the various platforms and wait for acceptance.  So was it not enough to have those physically around you taking ‘pot shots’ at you now you have global scrutiny?  People as you know are not always kind.  Hiding behind pennames, screen names and pseudo names they slander, belittle, and degrade you without a thought to its effect.  So now you have those physically around you constantly criticizing your every action along with a global audience.  

Take control of your life.  It all begins with you.  ‘A million likes’ on social media ‘will never be enough if you don’t like yourself.  Take a good look in the mirror and say to yourself, “I am fearfully and wonderfully made.  I am a child of the King and have allowed myself to stray from the course.  I have not fought the good fight but instead gave up along the way and followed the crowd.  I didn’t stay on the straight and narrow road but walked on the wide more traveled road.  I allowed life to live me and not live my life.  Now is the time to make changes.”

A/N:  I know that it is short but just something that’s been running through my head and decided to share.