Julie L.

I am 33 years old. I am going through a divorce. I have 3 beautiful children. I am on a road to self discovery, it has been a very interesting road to say the least, but with each step of the way I find that I like myself more and more each day. After 15 years of being with someone and being a mom, some women lose their identity. I am one of those women. I was married at the age of 17 so I have really known myself as an adult, I was always "his wife" or "their mom". Which the mom thing doesn't change, but my parenting views are changing, I am finding patience where there was none before. I am finding a more intese bonding. I am learning to stop and smell the roses, I am learning to see beauty in everything. But most importantly I am finding beauty which I possess (inside and out). That is something I have never been able to do. I have always been overly critical of myself, now I change the things that I don't like and I can look in the mirror and say I am beautiful because of the effort I am putting forth to change the things that I am not happy with. Some of those things are small and some are huge, but all will be overcome.
I am stiving to be the best mom that I can be. I am striving to be a woman that my kids are proud of. I am striving to be healthier and more active. In the past 2 1/2 months I have dropped 60 pounds and dropped 7 pant sizes. I went from wearing 3x-4x shirts out of the plus sizes to being able to shop for shirts in the JR section...Unless you have done that you can not imagine the intensity of pride, self respect, and the boost in confidence that it gives me. I sorted through all of my clothing the other day. I have to get rid of almost everything I owned because it literally falls off of me. The only bad part of that is some of those clothes still have the tags on them, others I only wore once, and now I have a whole lot less clothing choices than I did before. I have bought a few pairs of shorts and a few shirts just because I had no choice, it was either that of suffer the embarassment of my clothes falling off anytime I let go of the waistband. But I don't want to buy too many things because I have no intention of stopping here. I have short term and long term weight loss goals and I will not remain this size for long. It takes a very strong determination to acheive these goals. And NO diets don't work...lifestyle changes work. You have to start slow. Make small goals and small changes. Anyways life is beautiful if you stop being miserable long enough to enjoy it.
I love photography and I am very good at it. I worked at Olan Mills off and on for a few years. I started out as a telemarketer, I was quickly promoted to an appointment setter. I was awesome at that. Each store has a certain quota of that they try to acheive each week. The store I was at had not met quota in a year...until I came along. We hit quota every week. We had a photographer that was not dependable so much of the time I substituted as a photographer (it was funny because even when the photographer was there, many refused to let her do their session, they said it was me or nothing because I did such a good job on pictures that their friends purchased.) I also substituted as the salesperson and would also hit quota on that every time that I substituded. At one point I was over the whole studio. I quit working after I got pregnant with my second child. My boss called me and begged me to come back and run the studio while she was on vacation. Since it was only two weeks I agreed to do it because she was an awesome woman and had been a very good boss and friend to me. I miss that kind of work. It was something I loved. I would like to find another job that I like as much as that one. But realistically, I will probably go back and finish my nursing degree. It is the more sensible, productive, and financially sound profession. I have children so I have to take into consideration the fact that it costs a lot to raise kids, put them through college, and give them all of their needs and a lot of their wants. Yes mine are spoiled but I wouldn't have it any other way. They are my life.