As a kid, I took everything to heart. I was sure the people in my life who said I was no good were right. Unworthy of love, I was destined to never have a family of my own. As a less than average student, I would never succeed at college and obtain the Nursing career I dreamed of having.

By the time I was fifteen I had become accustomed to being a nobody. When I became a mother at seventeen, it seemed that my destiny had begun. A second child at nineteen, on food stamps and Medicaid, my abusive boyfriend currently behind bars only confirmed that my life would never amount to much.

I was wrong, but it took me years to figure that out. It started this morning when I had to accompany my fifteen-year-old child to High School. As I waited for our conference with the Assistant Principal I chatted with the school counselor. She had been my oldest son's Kindergarten teacher and watched all three of my children grow.

Answering her questions about my oldest two, I realized that there was no criticism or ridicule in her voice. Nor was there any when she asked after my husband and I. She spoke to me with a tone of mutual respect. I had conversations with ten different school officials over the next forty-five minutes and was treated with the same mutual respect.

I did not notice it, nor did I notice the respect I was given when I appeared, unannounced on my husband's jobsite. It still did not hit me when I opened my email to find a publisher requesting permission to print one of my poems. Nor did I immediately react to the power of telling that publisher no.

It took sitting here for hours steadily rating articles to come to this title. It sparked a vivid realization that encompassed my entire brain, I do not have the life I thought I would. I am somebody that people respect, trust, befriend and seek out for help or advice. My husband of eighteen and a half years have never been closer or happier.

My now twenty-one year old son works hard, pays his bills on time, owns and maintains his own car and is trusted and respected in the community. People speak very highly of my son, to my heart's delight. My nineteen-year-old daughter has spread her wings and taken flight on a life of adventure. She is a smart, strong-willed joy of my life.

My fifteen-year-old son is infamous in our little town. He is an All-American, Red-Blooded Country Boy that is sure to make you either laugh or cry with his antics. He is a little guy with a big heart that will someday become a respected adult of our community. If he doesn't tear it apart first.

My husband is one of the most sought after and fought over general contractors in our town. He works hard everyday despite his back injury, heart condition and breathing problem. He is a good father, has never cheated on me and is my biggest fan. He has fought hard to show me that I am worth loving.

As for my accomplishments that I am most proud of ... that would be my family. I came from a broken home with broken dreams and today I am a happily married wife and mother with a comfortable life. We do not have many fancy things but we have the important things.

We have love, trust, honesty and respect, we have each other. I am proud of my family and the life we have made more than any other accomplishment in my life. I wouldn't change a thing about my life. There is no mistake I would redo. The cost would be the family that I love dearly.

Learn more about this author, Kathryn Kirby.
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