Dolly Parton has never been ashamed of where she grew up or anything about her background. She is proud of herself for growing beyond her humble beginnings, and she embraces sharing her story with the hopes that it will inspire others. We can overcome anything if we are willing to face it head on and are willing to be our genuine selves. We cannot change our past. We can learn from it, laugh or cry at it, and choose to move beyond whatever it was we lived through.
I asked a friend of mine what she would do if she won a million dollars. Without a second passing she said she would pay off the house. I then said what else. She didn’t know. It was quiet for a while and I asked why pay off the house first? She said, “Whenever people go broke or face trouble the first thing they lose is their home. I was homeless in high school and lived in a car for three months. I would never want my daughter to ever experience that in her lifetime. House first, then we would ALWAYS have somewhere safe to live.” I already knew she had been homeless, and yet did not really fathom how that experience molded her thought processes even into our late fifties. She has never talked about those three months of living in the car…no need.
We may know people AND YET we cannot fathom how their upbringing and childhood experiences molded them forever. Being able to not be ashamed of our past AND having the courage to learn from it, to make a better life is a quality to be admired. Those who did not have it easy, handed to them or were given life choices without much pain cannot understand the drive, passion and determination to “do better”. The victory is that much sweeter when you remember how bad it used to be.
Take some time today to reflect on the lessons you learned early in life. They may not have been the ones you would have chosen, and yet they shaped you into the person you are today. “That’s who you are!” So give thanks, be proud, and keep working to build the life you want. Never be ashamed of where you come from…NEVER!
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