Who am I?

Who is Elizabeth?

A native Texan, I grew up as the baby of two hard-working, middle-class parents and the younger sister to my older brother that I strove to emulate. My parents provided me with opportunities and exposures that helped mold me into the person and woman who I would become. They strove to give me and my brother everything that they did not have and more. I grew up in a bubble, protected, in many ways, from some of the hardships and realities of the world. To say I was blessed and fortunate, is really an understatement, but something I definitely did not truly appreciate until I was much older.

I did not experience much hardship growing up - I was good at most everything I did - excelling in school, athletics and any other extracurriculars that I pursued. Although I would never classify myself as the "cool" kid, I was likeable and had a nice social group of friends. I attended good schools and had the choice of highly ranked colleges to attend, including offers with several academic and athletic scholarships. I really didn't experience failure or disappointment in myself until I reached college and I let my ego get the better of myself. It was during college that I struggled academically for the first time and had a difficult time facing this fact that I was "failing" at something in life. I became reclusive, disappointed and ashamed at who I was. It was a difficult pill to swallow, and one that I did not share with many people, including my own family. Instead of facing my school challenges head on, I found distraction in pursuing other opportunities during this time and immersed myself fully in these other opportunities. I eventually did finish my undergraduate degree, though I took the long and more difficult route to acheive this and continued to bear the personal shame within in my convoluted path to completion of my degree.

While these distractions ultimately turned into purpose and took me down a convoluted path to finding my passions and ultimately my future marriage, I also see these distractions as part of the reason that I began to abandon myself and who I was as a person. While it would take me another 15+ years of trials and tribulations to start coming back to me, I regret nothing during this time, realizing now that I needed this time to grow, to learn, and to eventually get to a point in realizing that I needed and deserved better in my life. But to get to this point, I had to believe that I actually deserved better - and for an extended period of time, since my failures in college, I did not believe that I was truly worthy.

When I think of who I am today, I define myself as a divorced, independent mother, professional, daughter and friend. After 42 years on this earth, I finally feel like I know who I am and what I want in life and I am unapologetically only pursuing situations, people and experiences that fit into this life that I want and desire.

What you see with me, is my true self. I accept that I will not be everyone's cup of tea and accept that this is okay. What remains most important to me, though, is that I remain true to myself and who I am, because it has taken a lot of time and effort to find Elizabeth again and I refuse to ever let her get away again.

So here I am, authentically me, Authetically E.