I am...Unafraid

I am unafraid.

Courage is a strange thing, we think of it always as some act of valor, something physical, reserved for soldiers and firefighters, but it is a choice we all make. 

Every day we rise from our beds, look at ourselves in the mirror, and ask, "Am I going to be brave?"  It's easy to avoid the question, to want to hide under your covers.

Because nobody wants to be vulnerable, nobody wants to expose themselves, nobody wants to be hurt. But isn't that what life is about? Aren't we supposed to get hurt?

Those are the moments that define us, those moments of pain. Pain is honest, it looks you in the face and tells you who you really are.

Pain will point out every flaw, will find every crack in your armor until finally you emerge from your broken cocoon something greater.

You may not be proud of what you've become, the mistakes you've made. But you have to be brave enough to look.

So I choose to live my life unafraid. I am not afraid to love, to be loved, to throw myself at my dreams. I am not afraid to take the road less taken, and to weep tears of joy and pain.

A life without pain is a life without substance, without meaning. I refuse to become a clay man, squishy and featureless. And I may be wrong, but at least

I am unafraid.