Hey loves welcome back,

How are you doing? Hopefully, you’re healthy and finding things to keep you occupied. Things will get better soon. To keep your mind off of things, in the last post, I did give you all book suggestions. These are books I feel are great for everyone, especially women. I will then use these next posts to talk about each one of them separately.

The first book that I will be dissecting is called Becoming by Renaada Williams. Now this book is filled with thoughts, statements, and poems. This book for me is about acceptance. Realizing that I can’t control everything and that is okay. The book starts with a poem called “Dear Beautiful Soul”. and one of my favorite things said in the poem is…

I KNOW A LOT OF TIMES, FAMILY, FRIENDS, AND ALL OF THE RELATIONSHIPS IN BETWEEN WANT YOU TO STAY STRONG. I WANT YOU TO KNOW THAT ITS OK IF YOU CAN’T BE.

The reason that this stuck with me, was for the simple fact that society tells you that you have to have it together all the time. I always had a few people in my life who wouldn’t let me cry during certain situations and tole me to remain “strong”. My first thought was why is crying considered weak? They made me feel like my feelings towards that specific situation weren’t valid. Maybe that’s not their intention. To those reading this who have felt the same way, I want you to know that it is okay not to be okay, despite what others tell you.

Throughout the book, the author is discovering that life… well life has its ups and downs. Many downs. There was one instance where she spoke on a. moment of confussion. Confussion that many of us women go through when it comes to relationships.

DO YOU KNOW WHAT IT FEELS LIKE TO CONSTANTLY GET PUSHED OUT WHILE BEING ASKED TO STAY?

This book, I feel like was composed of the thoughts of multiple relationships. It’s like she had repeated patterns. I can relate. Until you dig deeper into why your relationships do not work, you will get the same ending every time. I know, I know You’re probably thinking “I’m not the problem”. and you may not necessarily be the problem, but hear me out. You could have habits and characteristics that can end you up in situations that you didn’t plan on being in. For example, I noticed that in a lot of my friendships/relationships that I was always there. Now that’s not bad, but it can be if I let people take advantage of them. I was always that shoulder to cry on. I was always the advice giver. I was always there to stroke the ego. Rarely anything in return, which sucks. Yes, I love helping people but when it starts to feel like free labor, that’s when I have a problem. I had to let people know my boundaries to get my point across. For instance, when I give you my advice, yes you are allowed to take it with a grain of salt, but I’m only giving you that advice once. So much can come from that one passage of the book.

I KEPT GOING, NOT BECAUSE I WANTED TO TRUST ME, ALL OF ME WANTED TO STOP. I KETP GOING BECAUSE I DESERVED TO KNOW WHAT NOT GIVING UP ON MYSELF FELT LIKE.

Now I don’t want to give too much of the book away because I think that you should read it for yourself, but I did want to give you one more quote from the book for you to think about. Because it’s a simple statement but it’s so much deeper than that.

I DO THE BEST I CAN HELPING EVERYONE I KNOW BECOME BETTER, WHILE THEY STAND AROUND AND WATCH ME BECOME WORSE.

These quotes are just examples of why I love this book. It is so relatable and it gives you that boost of confidence that reminds you who you are. That is the reason I titled this blog “Growing Pains”. Because it is painful growing up, but it’s oh so worth it. Thank you for reading another post! I look forward to seeing you at the next one. Feel free to comment below, like, subscribe, and share this post with people who you know need to hear or read this