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Today on the Let Yourself Sparkle Podcast, I share a painful chapter in my life when I was 12 years old and I had no friends. I was the last kid picked for sports teams, no one wanted to sit next to me on the bus, and kids rolled their eyes and laughed when I walked into the room. I wasn’t invited to parties, and the worst moment of that year was when a kid who I thought had been my friend all along actually wrote a note to one of the “cool kids” about what a loser I was, and how she had only been pretending to be my friend all those years.

I wish that year didn’t have such a profound impact on me, but I’m embarrassed to say- the truth is, although I am now all grown up, and I have children of my own and a wonderful husband and good friends, I’d be lying if I said I wasn’t still haunted by how worthless I was made to feel that year.
Holocaust Survivor, Viktor Frankl wrote in his book- Mans Search for Meaning, wrote that- “everything can be taken from us but the last of human freedoms…. that freedom — to choose one’s attitude in any given set of circumstances, to choose one’s own way.”
After a lot of hesitation, I decided to share this episode because I don’t want anyone else to ever feel the way I felt when I was 12 years old. I want you to know that just because you open a door and its full of mean people, that has nothing to do with who YOU are. The truth is I moved to a different school the next year, and it was like a whole new world. When I walked into a room at that new school, I was surrounded by friends and felt seen and loved and welcome and understood and I started the Let Yourself Sparkle Podcast to make sure everyone who hears it feels seen and loved and welcome and understood and empowered to take their pain and see it as momentary, and meaningless, because it does not need to define you, but rather you can use it as an opportunity for growth and a way that you can shine your light – not only on your story, but as a means to spread more light in this world- by lighting up the people around you.
And sometimes when people are not that nice, that really might just mean that it’s probably time to find a new door to walk into, and there are an infinite amount of doors full of good people and brighter interactions, so I just want you to know – there is always hope and you are not stuck. And the negative opinions of others has nothing to do with your worth.
If you could share this episode with the people in your life who could use a reminder that they are not limited and could use a little more light in their life, that would mean the world to me.
Subscribe to The Let Yourself Sparkle Podcast for tips and tricks to lower stress and anxiety and add the sparkle back to your life, and download my free book that will teach you 12 easy steps to living a happier life- at: www.YouCanChooseToBeHappy.com

Special thanks to Cathy Heller and her podcast “Don’t Keep Your Day Job” for the inspiration to put this show together, and for her song Gonna Make a Change which is featured in the episode.