Challenge 6: Three Personality Traits That I Am Proud Of

In this day and age self esteem is like a hidden superpower. We are surrounded by negativity and social media chaos constantly causing comparisons and self doubt. So the challenge is 3 personality traits I'm proud of: First, my die-hard attitude with friendships, then my epic sarcastic humor, and third, my constant need to persevere through any of life's crap.

Anyone who has known me for longer than a few years knows that I take friendships very seriously. I will buy, steal, maim, and do just about anything for someone I want as my friend and whomever is my friend back. This often bites me in the ass in the long run. I work really hard at any relationship and invest a lot in others and when others don't reciprocate it's super difficult for me.

Family stuff has always been a challenge for me because of my parents split when I was 12 and a lot of instability for my formative years. I always found solace in friends because, as a "technical" only child, they were who I spent my childhood with. I'm often seen as an overwhelming force because I work so hard to maintain relationships with others. I fly across the country, drive hours, and I truly devote my time and my entire self to the people I love.

My sarcastic humor, which can rival most, was born primarily from the greatest movie ever made, "The Princess Bride." Sarcasm has been a tool that has gotten me into trouble, out of trouble and through some of the shit in my life I wish I hadn't had to deal with. My daughter has picked it up, it bites me on the ass daily, but also makes me happy that she is witty and funny and cute.

Lastly, my ability to persevere through some shit. Now, don't get me wrong, everyone has seen some shit and I personally love hearing everyone's truth and trials, but I've lived quite a life for not being so very old. When my first, real boyfriend, tried to steal my car and my laptop after leaving me at the airport for about 4 hours when I came home from a trip, my dad sat me down and instead of reading me the riot act, told me that he just didn't want me to forget that there were still good people who wouldn't treat me that way. He reminded me that even within the bad, there is still good. And I've carried that with me.

I definitely went through my angry teen into twenties time. I smoked cigarettes and said "fuck all" to everything. But that didn't serve me as well as the belief that there was inherently some good, somewhere around. I also went through a lot of therapy to learn how to manage my depression, stress and anxieties that kicked into serious high gear when life kicked my ass.

And I learned to be careful with whom I share my issues with. This is a constant lesson. Often you will find that timing is everything and in one person's dire hour you will find that goodness and common ground that you can stand on to share and reveal.

If I were to just list the bullshit it would go like this: I lost my childhood to my mother's drug addiction, survived 3 different high schools in 3 years and moving across the country twice, followed by graduating and working full time through college and living with roommates to make ends meet. Then I lost both my grandparents within a year, my mom had a cancer scare and then a violent relapse during which I graduated college through, got married and moved back across the country.

Into marriage I worked any job I needed to for a few years until we chose to get pregnant, had a failure to thrive baby at 3 weeks old and I spent 10 days alone in the hospital with my baby girl to get us back on track. When my daughter was 3 all of us were in a horribly traumatic car accident where we came out worse for the wear but we are all lucky to be alive and well. She had 2 broken legs and was in a wheelchair for 6 weeks and had two surgeries, and my husband had surgery on his bicep tendon, and I had head staples, bruising and I now have severe PTSD.

Through this all, I managed to have no psychotic episodes. There were and are, however, many crying jags. Many, many, many bad days pummeled me, but I pushed through it all with the help of many and will always continue. My favorite uncle always says, "We continue."

Some people could use any of these unfortunate circumstances as a reason to end up in a padded room or be a less-than-great person in life, but I've worked really hard to persevere and not let them tank my existence, and that makes me proud. I hold these triumphs close and when I hear other friends going through their stuff, struggling to persevere, I offer my support and a sarcastic comment. Because not only do I channel Chandler Bing saying "I'm not so good with the advice, can I offer you a sarcastic comment?," but be real, laughter always helps.