My memoir. My life.

I never set out to become an author.

I started writing for myself…as a kind of therapy. A way to put memories on paper, make sense of things I had carried for years, and perhaps understand how all the different chapters of my life had shaped me.

But somewhere along the way, the writing became something more.

At sixty, I’ve lived enough life to know that the chapters that shape us aren’t always the beautiful ones. They’re also the heartbreaks, the mistakes, the people we loved, the people we lost, the choices we wish we could change, the laughter, the ridiculous decisions, and the moments that taught us just how strong we really are.

What began as something I was writing for myself slowly became a story I wanted to tell.

This memoir is my life…the good, the bad, the ugly…and all the beautiful parts in between.

Although it’s pretty darn factual, I can’t technically call it an autobiography. Most of the places have been renamed, and the names of people have been changed…not so much to protect the innocent, but the not so innocent. 

There are things in these pages I’m proud of. Things I’m not proud of. Choices I’d make again and others I probably wouldn’t. There are moments that may surprise people who have known me for years, because we can know someone for a lifetime and still only know the chapters they’ve allowed us to see.

This book is all the chapters.

I hope you read it without judgment, because honestly, there’s plenty in here that could be judged. But every wrong turn, every heartbreak, every mistake, every loss, every love, and every time I had to pick myself back up helped make me the woman I am today.

And if even one woman who is struggling reads my story and comes away believing that her hardest chapter doesn’t have to be her last…that life can change, she can begin again, there can still be a beautiful life waiting for her on the other side…then sharing my story will have been worth it.

At sixty years old, I can finally say this without hesitation:

I love this version of me.