This year is my renaissance. But in order to be reborn, I must die first. So I told a close friend that I was associating myself with a Phoenix this year and setting myself on fire so I can rise from the ashes.

After all, what better way to rise into my new self than from the ashes of my broken, terrified past?

This year is my revolution. I’m questioning everything and claiming titles I never dared to claim before.

Writer.

Feminist.

Poet.

Woman.

Yes, I’ve been writing since I was fourteen. Yet I never felt that the title was mine to claim. It was a “career” approved by my mother because, she told me, it was something I could do at home when I was married and had kids. Because to her, a mother and housewife were the ultimate – no – ONLY titles a woman could claim. So she claimed my title as writer and held it over my head. I could “claim” it once I was married…if my future husband approved. For now, since I was captured under my parents umbrella of protection [thank you, ATI, for that term], I could not accept praise for myself. I was a writer because my parents allowed it.

No more.

I looked at myself in the mirror and I straightened my shoulder and I gave myself permission.

You are a writer, and a poet, and it is okay to claim those titles for yourself. While you’re at it, here’s a reminder that you are a woman and hey, feminists aren’t evil.

I put on a new shirt the other day and found myself in front of the mirror again. And for the first time ever, I found the courage to admire how damn sexy I looked. Because no woman should be afraid to call herself sexy or even just good looking.

Yes. I am setting myself on fire and embracing these flames because they are paving the way to a new beginning.

I am giving myself permission to be whoever I want to be. Because yes, I am a woman, but no, that isn’t going to stop me. Why should my own gender provide a stumbling block for who I want to be?

So let me be a woman. Let me be a writer. Let me be a feminist, a poet, a traveler, a business woman, and whatever else I want to be.

linking up with marvia davidson over at the human impulse for real talk tuesday. join us? what do you need to give yourself permission to do?