I love being soft! I love being sensitive! I love feeling everything deeply! For so much of my life, I carried shame around these parts of myself. I convinced myself that being emotional meant there was something wrong with me, that I needed to be less sensitive, less expressive, less me. Instead of embracing the way I move through the world, I spent years trying to hide it, but being emotional is not a flaw; it is an essential part of who I am. I don’t know who I would be without it. The work of untangling the roots of that shame is ongoing and will likely continue throughout my life. It’s time to be proud of who I am instead of hiding what makes me, me.