Member-only story
Stepping Out of the Darkness
by Michelle Montoro
I have spent many hours in quiet thought and contemplation about the journey that brought me to this current place in my life...this place of joy and gratitude and pure happiness. I have thought of the friends who have come and gone. The friends who have remained or reconnected. The friends who are distant memories. The relationships that I once had. The ones that ended amicably. The ones that ended disastrously. The ones that just ended. The paths that I chose. The easy ones and the difficult ones. The decisions that I made. The good ones and the bad.
My experiences, each and every one of them, my perceptions of these events, and the way in which I handled each one at any given point in my life, have molded me into the person that I am right now. There are many years left, many more experiences to have, many more people who will come and go who will affect me in some way. I may not be the exact same person as I am right now 20 years from now, 10 years from now, or even 5 years from now. I know I certainly am not the same person I was 5, 10, and 20 years ago. In fact, when I recall my life, my being from decades back, I often don’t even recognize that person. And all too often, when memories do resurface with some clarity, I really kind of despise that person I was.
