Over a year ago, I started a message board (http://militaryissuedlove.net) to try to help support our Troops and those that they leave behind when they go to war. (The reason this started is for a whole nother post but I’ll be sharing that with you all soon, too.) When this happened, I made a promise to be an open book to my internet family. This can be seen on my Facebook, Twitter and the message board, too. I share everything – big and small, easy and hard, relevant and non. Sometimes it takes me a little longer to share the bigger or more stressful things in my life, but I do (after taking a step back or getting some “perspective”) eventually share them, no matter who hates it 
This has been a reason for many to delete me from Facebook and for others to talk nasty about me. I’m a sensitive person, so when I found out that my “friends” fell into both of these categories, I was hurt and almost decided to stop sharing my life completely. (Sad, friendship had that much power over me.) In putting so much of my life on the internet for others to see and share, I opened an opportunity for others to hurt me and the worse part is that they were able to use the things I shared with them to make sure the cut was deep on at least 3 different occasions. When my “best friend(s)” called me “crazy” for being open and sharing so many thoughts, my heart was broken and my feelings were more than hurt. However, I sat there reading my reply to them and the replies of the many people that said they enjoyed my honesty and reading what I had to share and came across 3 messages in which these people said my openness had changed their lives. At that moment, I decided that it was more important to be ME, no matter how obnoxious that might be, and in turn, share who ME is with everyone that mattes to me. Not to mention, those were MY thoughts and that was MY page and the people that could read it were supposed to be MY friends. Those people aren’t going to shut me down. They’d already shut me out and I wasn’t going to let them affect me in any other way – except for making a good writing topic and giving me the motivation to keep being me and to continue to help others. It has been those people who have motivated me to do better and do more my whole life. It’s those people who made me realize that I was going to do everything I ever dreamt of in life and with that was going to reach out and help as many people as I can. On the days when they make me feel less than good, I just remember that I live everyday to help others, while they are only living to hurt others.
So, with this blog, this is my promise to you. (Or warning, depending on whether you’re one of those that hates my constant status updates and sharing of information that you never would or if you’re one of those that like me for being me and showing the rest of you who “me” is, even if I don’t know who that is sometimes.) My promise will be to share my feelings, emotions, experiences, thoughts, beliefs, ideas, goals, destinations and the journey to those destinations. I want to show all that read this who I am and how and why I am who I am. I will share the things that matter to me and the things I’m passionate about with you, no matter how raw my feelings are or how they might upset others. I will share the lessons I learned or didn’t learn or should’ve learned. I’m going to do my best to share me – my faith, my hopes and my dreams. That is my promise to you.
