You wake up and look in the mirror. Hair disheveled, breath that smells like waste, eyes crusted with last night’s “why is it so hard” tears. Brain is barely functioning and you feel that you are about to break. You question how you were able to get up this morning. Day in and day out it is somewhat the same routine.

You acknowledge that you have responsibilities to uphold, a reputation to fulfill, a people pleaser when you smile at friends or r strangers. When is the last time you had “me time”? It’s probably feels like decades ago. As you take a seat wherever it is you fancy sitting on a Monday morning, you contemplate your whole life in a few short minutes.

Surely whoever is reading this is having a different experience and a different day. They could be a morning person or not. They can be middle aged, young, teenage, young adult or a senior. But wherever you are in life, the morning is when you start to wake up, adjust to the light in your home, and think of what is for breakfast.

No matter what your life is like on any morning, I’m sure most of you have expectations of what your day will bring. Some of you may be nervous and anxious about it. Will it go right today or totally wrong? I don’t know. You look in the mirror still and already judge yourself at your most vulnerable. Isn’t vulnerability what makes us stronger? Exposing yourself at your worst so you can suck it up deep down and show only what you want to show. But mornings carry a certain spotlight that no one wants on them. You’re preparing to put on your facade, or part of a facade to the world while covering up the broken and somewhat disturbed.

But don’t fret. It’s not necessarily a bad thing. Being vulnerable and in your truest form is one of the rarities that usually you get to see, maybe your family and loved ones can see it to.

So, embrace your true self. Stare into that mirror and gaze at every imperfection. Know that despite the facade you may or may not wear won’t change who you really are. You are amazing, beautiful, successful, trying, and confident.