Today was a day full of memories. I put on my American Flag shirt in honor of Memorial Day, laced my tennis shoes and headed to the Manitou Incline, to do something I should've finished a couple of years ago. If you ask anyone that is close to me they will tell you I am a completely different person than I was two years ago, and I would whole heartedly agree. At 22 I was in and out of a toxic relationship with a guy I thought had hung the moon. Being too naive to see that he was bringing me down instead of up, I held on to what I thought was something good for me. Everyone around me saw that I was slowly losing myself in the thought of someone else, so my dad packed my bags and him and I came to Colorado Springs to visit Diana for a week in November. That week I was glued to my phone waiting for a phone call I never ended up getting. My dad and sister tried everything to get the 'young, wild and free' Bonnie back so they decided to take me to the Manitou Incline. I was so consumed with everything that I had left back in Kentucky I didn't care about putting any energy into anything, after all every bit of my energy was invested in him. As they hiked the incline, I sat at the bottom defeated in more ways than one.
Two years later I wouldn't have recognized that girl. Today as I got to the top of the incline I smiled because I knew at that moment that I am a stronger person now than I have ever been.
Loving and believing in yourself is one of the most important things that you can do. We have all been there. At one point in our lives we have let someone else dictate the way that we feel about ourselves and those around us. We have let someone tell us that we aren't good enough, that we aren't pretty enough, that we aren't strong enough, and we believed them. Then one day, you wake up and realize that you are everything that you thought you weren't.
Finishing the Incline with Diana and the two girls was something I will always remember. Sarah practically ran the entire thing, and Carolyn had to take a few more breaks but for a four year old she made it to the top so well that everyone was talking about how resilient the girls were. It makes me so happy that Diana is raising her girls to believe that they are awesome, that they are strong, and beautiful and inspiring. Nothing is impossible to them, and it makes me smile to see them turning into such amazing young ladies.
“I can't go back to yesterday because I was a different person then." <3
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