“You can’t base your life on other people’s expectations.”

-- Stevie Wonder

As a young girl, I felt limited by my gender. I was supposed to be a boy so when I appeared without the required equipment, my role as the highly anticipated child became that of “oh, another girl.” I was told, through unspoken words, that I was not going to accomplish as much as I might had I been born a boy, and being an impressionable child, I believed it. It followed me throughout my life.

When I became a mother, that role dominated all the others. I felt that everything I did was filtered through that mommy lens. It was the beginning of my awakening, though. My children helped me to see that I couldn’t be the mother I wanted to be if I was denying who I was. I had to stop trying to fit the mold of the “perfect mother” and just be the perfect me. For the past few years, I’ve worked to peel off the layers of expectations that I allowed others to drape over me. Now, I am Kim first and all my other roles, as numerous as they are, follow behind.

~ Kim Gelinas

“To be yourself in a world that is constantly trying to make you something else is the greatest accomplishment.”

-- Ralph Waldo Emerson