#sarahredhead

[sarahredhead]

[redheads-in-art-blog]

INSPIRATION by VforVieslav on dA

[sarahredhead]

[sarahredhead]

Walmart in Louisville, KY knows how to sell jewelry

[sarahredhead]

Photograph for FBA production of The Nutcracker

[sarahredhead]

Spanish Dancer for the Nutcracker (Festival Arts Ballet, Alabama)

[sarahredhead]

SUCCESS

So the question is “What is your definition of success?”

My answer has nothing to do with money, education or fame. I was physically bullied in school, watched my biological father  beat my Mom until she spent many days in ICU - many times over many years; I was emotionally and verbally abused; I have been homeless; I have watched my sweet Mom deteriorate from Lupus,  and I was anorexic to the point that I weighed less than 90 pounds by age 19. I was suicidal and came so close too many times.

But guess what? Somehow - somehow I never lost that last glowing, burning ember of determination and knowledge, that tiny furnace that makes you grit your teeth and say, “I know I am someone...I MUST have a purpose”. I am so thankful that I did not leave this world. Why?

I am a success because I married a man who has never laid a hand on me and treats me with the most beautiful respect. He makes me feel beautiful. We have been married 18 years!

I am a success because I am an amazing Mom to 3 gorgeous, intelligent children who make me laugh and smile every single day. Every. Single. Day. I did that. I made those.

I am a success because I stopped listening to my abuser and started deciding who I wanted to be. Every opportunity I got I pursued my art and photography. Guess what? I have even had a photo in the Smithsonian, not to mention magazines all over the world!

I am a success because I spend my life enabling others through encouragement, empowering others by giving them credit and recognition for their gifts and talents, and by expressing sincere compliments and the willingness to stop long enough to recognize that EVERYONE has a story. EVERYONE has been through shit sometime in their life.

I am a success because my life is NOTHING like the life my parents had - and that, to me, is my idea of SUCCESS. I am my own person and I beat the odds. I kept holding on. I finally learned to love myself.

I FINALLY LEARNED TO LOVE MYSELF.

You can too.

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Batman. The later years.

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