I Like Me

I'm a grumpy, sour person. I'm impatient and apathetic. I don't want to be; I don't like to be, but I am. I wake up in bad moods grumbling and complaining and acting like the world revolves around me. I do.

I'm also a nice person. I can, occasionally, have endless patience and be very sweet and generous and sympathetic.

But, whatever I am, I just am.

I like me. It took a long time for me to be okay with myself but I do. I hope you like you, too. I hope that, if I ever step on your toes, you'll confront the situation head on (hopefully with some tact) and give me a chance to resolve it... to make amends because, if you like me, then I deserve enough respect to be given that chance and so do you. You deserve respect from yourself and others. Everyone does. If you feel you don't, then you need a hug.

I hope that, through my stumbling and grumbling through life, my children grow up knowing how much I appreciate them and that I love them more than anything and that they are worth it.  I hope they learn that it's normal to feel a range of emotions - it's okay to laugh, to cry and to feel angry - and that those emotions pass along with the situations that brought them. I hope they learn that it's okay to make mistakes and that saying "sorry" is a good thing, if you mean it. I hope they grow up with enough respect for themselves to respect others.

I hope I teach my children to like themselves: that it's okay to be who they are and that I will love them for that and not in spite of it. If I can turn around one day and realize that I've accomplished that, I'll like me even more.