"I can trace my life back to Catholic school uniforms, white button-downs and knee-high stockings, to dance recitals, mascara put on a squirmy childhood me by my mother, to high school prom dress shopping. .

. snapshots of my life.

Maybe I'd done it all this time and only just now become aware of it-aware of the awareness of the space I take up, the air around me, the persona I exhibit. Perhaps it was something that was always there, even as a child, poking its head out now and then but never making a home within me, always fleeing from the guarded defense of confidence.

But somewhere along the line, the guard went down, the defense failed, and it slithered its way back into my body, taking shelter, this time, for good. " A memoir of heartbreak and self-discovery, on self-love explores a variety of difficult topics--illness, divorce, first love, anxiety, body dysmorphia--and is a reminder to everyone struggling in their own lives that it is possible to change the narrative, no matter how dark it may be.

We can write our own stories. .