Wounded Warrior Woman

“I want to go home, but it doesn’t exist. I want to go home, but it doesn’t exist.” Rocking back and forth, hot tears flooding my eyes and pouring over my eyelids in a steady and unending stream of sadness and grief.

I lived for many years like that. Alone, longing for a place that felt like home. But, home didn’t exist for me. It never really had. My childhood was emotional turmoil and heartbreak. So, growing up, our home was more a place of darkness, deceit, and disaster than anything else.

Still, there was something inside me that longed for home. I was searching for a place or a person that could hold me and make me feel safe and loved. The problem was, I hated myself. When I looked in the mirror I saw someone who disgusted me. Revolted me! This awful hideous person was not worthy of the kind of love you need to create a place called home.

Or was she?

I couldn’t even tell you how many times I’ve been raped. I wouldn’t be able to recount every time I almost died. My memories are more filled with trauma than they are happy. And, because of that, I felt I was significantly less than everyone else.

I felt, for a very long time, that what happened to me tarnished me. I felt worthless. Completely and utterly.

I could not have been more wrong. In fact, those awful things I experienced have become a very important part of my identity. I no longer feel ashamed of my past because I no longer feel shame.

And that is what I am hoping to share with the world.

I recently started an online business/blog called Wounded Warrior Woman. I created it with the goal of helping as many women as possible to truly know and love themselves completely.

There aren’t very many people who are taught how to love themselves. Especially not women. Women are taught to be caregivers. We are taught to be strong and obedient. And, we are highly criticized.

There is an entire world being carried on the shoulders of almost every woman. We have so much to be responsible for. We just don’t usually think to include ourselves under the umbrella of things we care about. So, instead, we end up neglecting ourselves.

Now, imagine, you’re a woman, a mother, a wife, a daughter, a friend, an employee… and then you get raped.

Now what?

If you tell anyone you’ll have a label on your forehead.

Victim.

And you’ll never be able to rid yourself of it. So, instead, you hold it in. It will go away eventually, right?

Wrong.

This is just one example. But it’s all too common. Women don’t realize the power that they hold. They don’t realize the power their pain holds. And that’s where Wounded Warrior Woman comes in.

What could be more hopeful than a fellow woman being able to love herself after countless traumatic injuries?

I want to bring light to the darkest corners of women’s souls by shining a light on mine. The scars that I carry with me are no longer something I wish to hide. Now, they are a part of me that I am proud to display.

There are women capable of incredible things that have been defeated by the ugliness of shame and self-doubt. The world is at a great loss because of it.

I will gladly stand naked and unafraid before the world if it means helping another woman to love and cherish herself completely.

I see Wounded Warrior Woman as a beacon of hope and prosperity for women everywhere. Together, women can unite against shame and fear under the Wounded Warrior Woman name, and take on anything the world can throw at them.

I hope to help women F.A.C.E (forgive, accept, care, empower) who they are and love what they find. I hope to chase away the fear that paralyzes them & teach them to unleash the power they have always possessed.

I wouldn’t change anything that I’ve been through. I wouldn’t want to go through it again, but I wouldn’t change it for all the money in the world. To change the past would be to change me, and I am happy with who I am becoming. Now it’s time to help other women to know the same peace.