My Definition

What defines you?  Is it the stuff that happens to you or what you make it of it?  Is it the experiences that you’ve had or what you’ve learned from them?  Is it what people think of you or how you relate to them?  Is it your loves, your emotions, your beliefs or is it all or none of these things?

I think you can let yourself be defined by the wrong things.  You can let others tear you down until you believe that is who you are (my second husband was real good at this).  You can let mass media show you, through millions of TV and magazine ads, that you are ugly or fat or not up to par with everyone else until you start to believe it to be true (try watching a Lifestyle Lift commercial and not think you could use one).  You can poison yourself with outside influences until pretty soon you treat them like your own.

This is so wrong.  Our definition should come from within with no outside authority.

So what’s my definition?   If I could look myself up in a dictionary, this is what it would say about me:

PATRICIA OTERO FULLER  \ pə-tri-sha \ o-te-ro \ fů-ler \

1.   Noun:  Blogger, Christian, Full-time RVer, Cat-Lover, New Yorker, Picky Eater, Wife/Mother/Daughter/Sister/Aunt/Grandmother, Puerto Rican/Austrian, Conservative, Storyteller

2.   Verb:  Loves/Hates, Reads, Sings, Imagines, Thinks, Questions, Wonders

a.   Loves: Jesus, her family, reading, cats, reality TV, McDonald’s ice cream cones, singing in church, action movies, writing in her blog, traveling, visiting new places, change, music that moves her, playing Bejeweled Blitz, eating out, word puzzles

b.   Hates:  Dieting, exercising, cooking, talking on the phone, being away from friends and family especially her grandchildren, asking stupid questions, waiting in line, waiting in general

c.   Reads: Nook-books, who-done-its, political thrillers, historical fiction, science fiction, Christian fiction, Left Behind, Harry Potter, Jeffrey Deaver, Michael Crichton, Twilight, C.S. Lewis, J.R.R. Tolkien, any good story

3.   Adjective:  Curly-Headed, Short, Chubby (I'm being kind), Faithful, Loyal, Insulin-Dependent, Thankful, Ordinary, Sensitive, Serious, Shy, Honest, Retired, Happy

I’m sure there’s more, but you get the picture.  What defines me is the combination of what I am, what I do, what I love or hate, and what I feel.  It is compounded by what I believe and what I know to be true.  It’s a very complex formula and trying to figure it all out today has worn me out!  It’s not often I take such a deep, long look at myself.

I believe if you want to define who you are, you better be ready to dig deep.  The deeper you go, the more you will find out.  Have you noticed I left out pretty much everything negative about me?  A girl has got to have some secrets, doesn't she?

~ P