What We Carry

Have you ever sat quietly and pondered how you're expected to manage everything? Which role you should take on? There are days when it seems like I have to juggle too many roles, and it feels overwhelming. I'm a wife, mom, friend, nurse, daughter, sister, and some days it's impossible to be all of these at once, yet I must because if I'm not, then who am I?

At times, it seems that if I remove one of my roles, I'm immediately failing to be who everyone expects me to be. If I set aside my role as a wife, I feel absent for my husband. If I step away from being a mom, I feel like a bad mother because I'm not entirely there for my children, and then society criticizes, saying, "how dare you not prioritize your kids?" Yet, when I neglect my own well-being, I'm not the person others need me to be. How do I manage that? How do you handle that burden?

It feels like I ask myself these questions every single day. Ultimately, I've had to accept that prioritizing myself is okay. It's alright to take a step back because I'm not a machine that can keep going non-stop without concern. I'm a person with feelings, emotions, and needs, and nothing can take that away from me. I must step back and remind myself that it's okay to experience all my emotions. It's okay to feel overwhelmed, frustrated, angry, hurt, or anything else I need to feel at that moment. You have that right too, dear friend. You deserve to feel and be acknowledged. YOU ARE ENOUGH.

With Love,

June