REALITY AND FREEDOM!!!

You may not can tell that I'm a new natural by my profile pic, but a week ago I cut all my hair down to the natural hair (unrelaxed hair). Currently I'm rocking some micro braids while I grow it out to a comfortable length for me...

Anyway, I read and saw a very inspiring Natural Hair Story today about a young lady named Lala08 on curlynikki.com. It wasn't so much of what was said in the story, but it was one picture in particular that made me think of reality and freedom. Anyone that is currently natural can relate to the pride you get from being natural. Pride of being who you were created to be. Now I do want to say to all my relaxed beauties, there is nothing wrong if you want to keep your hair relaxed...it really takes some courage and getting use to, to go back to your natural tresses after being relaxed for so many years. It's almost unfamiliar territory dealing with hair that not bone straight and the EXTREME thickness that some of us have. It took me a year to really embrace not having a relaxer and get the strength to start the transition from relaxed to natural.

Many of us spend so much of our life trying to fit in to this ideal story of what our lives should be like. I watched a lot of family TV growing up, so my ideal life was suppose to be a straight American story (even if it was only really geared towards white-America). I wanted the husband, to be a stay-at-home wife, raise my kids, the house with the white picket fence, the dogs...the whole shebang!!! But let me tell you it surely has not happened like that.

So when I saw this young ladies picture I thought..."REALITY AND FREEDOM". My reality is, I currently find myself in a life situation that's not ideal to what I originally wanted. Reality that life success doesn't just fall into your lap, it's something that you have to work for and take a great deal of planning and having a plan a, b, c, d and maybe even an e. Reality is that all things don't always go according to your plans, because we're not in this world alone - many other humans are interconnected in our lives, therefore another persons victories or even mistakes can change your path in life.

My freedom is, getting away from what others think I should do. Freedom in knowing, that just because America sets a standard of success doesn't mean that I have to incorporate that standard into my life. Freedom in knowing that I was fearfully and wonderfully made in God's eyesight and it's OK to be just who he made me to be.

I think about the people who don't fit the norm. They have a definite unique state of being. Many things in their lives don't make sense to us, but some how it fits them perfectly and you can't see them any other way. Imagine if we were all our own definite unique person; would the make-up and fashion industry be so lucrative? Would plastic surgeons be one of the top paid doctors in America? I doubt it. But because we've allowed the world to tell, most of us, what we should look like and allowed to them to define success for us - sometimes we wake up and find ourselves in a world that's not quite our own.

Are you living in your own "reality and freedom" or find yourself in a world that's not quite your own?