Quite simply, we do! We’re our own champion, we’re the one man team that are both the sword and the shield. We’re the ones taking shots and getting shot at and you know what? It’s damn hard sometimes! I didn’t know what motherhood had in store for me when I finally made the decision to go through with my pregnancy. I had no idea what kind of goliath awaited me on the other side. Was I going to break down? Was I going to crumble under the weight of it all? Was I going to slip into a depression? I had numerous questions running through my mind and only me to answer them. I was both the angel and the devil on my own shoulders riddled with doubt and fear while combating them both with the strength, knowledge and resilience that abounds in me abundantly.
The truth is I was walking into single motherhood, that’s right, I knew all along this journey would be walked solo from the jump. Surely I had “options”, the truth is, I already used that option the year before and to me that was all I got, one time to make one mistake. This was never how I wanted to walk into motherhood, I have not one single regret about my daughter, I want her just as much now, if not more than I did when I decided. But the truth is I wish it looked different, I wish my journey into motherhood came with a partner, came with a confidant to share the highs and lows, I wish it came with someone I could lean on when times got hard and boy did they ever.
But what this journey did was teach me was that you have to be your own advocate, you have to be your own biggest champion, you have go harder for you than anyone else in the world. I’ll never forget the countless months and days and hours I spent alone at the hospital. I’ll never forget how much I showed up for me and mine, I’ll never forget how much I had my own back. The days when it was just me and I had to find strength in places I didn’t know I had it.
So now when I ask who claps for the single mamas, just know that we do! We’re strong when we want to be and when we don’t. We’re resilient, we’re tough, we’re gentle and no one in this world will root harder for us then ourselves.
