Toxicity Be Gone

Someone in my life recently commented, "You know, you're not the same person you were ever since you got married," in the most non-complimentary of ways. This isn't the first time to have heard something like this from said person.

While this, and other statements like this, may once have caused the kind of reaction this person was hoping to get from me (read: guilt, shame), I actually took this statement to be a great compliment.

This year I will have been married for six years. S i x. In these six years I have become a mother of two, I have lost family members to disease and age, and I have had to deal with more than my share of drama drama drama (more often than not caused by the person who repeatedly states said comment and others like it). As a result of living life (read: growing up) I have lost some of my naivety, become a stronger person for it, and have come to the realization that the problem isn't so much that I am not the same person I was before (honestly, no one should be after this much time and the events that have taken place). No, the real problem is that someone else thinks that this is a problem; The greatest thing about this realization is knowing that this time, the problem is not mine. 

Boom.