I Am Learning To Love Myself: Mara’s Story, Part Five

“Now I truly am learning who I am. I am learning my limitations and boundaries. I am learning how to love without pity. I am learning how to trust people that love me.”

I Am Learning To Love Myself: Mara’s Story, Part Four

“He was going to stop narcotics. She seemed assured and left me there with him. I remember trembling again as she left. The church only believed in divorce upon the grounds of physical abuse and adultery.”

I Am Learning To Love Myself: Mara’s Story, Part Three

“I had grown up very sheltered — I hadn’t been around an addict or drunk before. Unless they had a bottle in their hand, I had to be told when someone was drunk. I didn’t know what a bong was, I didn’t know what a pipe was. Nursing school and the internet had taught me what sex was and I used urban dictionary to pick look up references my friends or patients made.”

I Am Learning To Love Myself: Mara’s Story, Part Two

“Almost all the girls in my family or in my best friend’s family have struggled with anorexia or bulimia at some point in time.”

I Am Learning To Love Myself: Mara’s Story, Part One

“I grew up the oldest of nine children just barely inside the perimeter of Atlanta, GA. My earliest memory is my father coming in and telling my mother that Clinton had just won the presidency.”