I am a good many things.  Some are great.  Some are still needing my attention.  And some…. Eh well.  Some of me will always be bad. At least for other people. I am not going to apologize for who I am.  I am a survivor.  It has made me cautious and strange. 

      I have been molested,  gang-raped, abused both physically and emotionally.  I have faced down a gun held by a man I was sure wanted me dead.  I have survived being locked in the trunk of a car,  and being convinced that I would die there.  I have survived living with no running water.  Impoverished,  with no way of fixing it. 

        I have survived the loss of many people who I have loved,  some merely because they couldn’t understand what I have become.  

And like the poem from Maya Angelou…. Still I rise. 

I am becoming more with each day.  

I am not going to allow myself to falter. 

Today I am better than yesterday, 

And still I rise. 

Tomorrow I will be more than I am today, 

And still I rise. 

To those watching to see me fail, 

Be ready for me to see 

Me fly. 

*picture copyright of Patricia Harris.