I'm making a choice.

A choice my parents made for me.

And a choice I'm making for my daughter.

I'm choosing to embrace my strong-willed, mighty daughter so she can grow into a strong woman one day.

I want my daughter to have an opinion and not be afraid to voice it.  Even when it's not the popular one.

I want my daughter to rise above the ranks and make a difference in this world one day.

I want my daughter to have all the same opportunities that I've had and more.

I want her to break that freakin' glass ceiling!  Then continue to shatter it.

Will it be easy? Nope.

Will I ever regret encouraging her to go after what she wants without making apologies for it? Never.

How am I going to do this?  I'm going to let her be her.

It's not going to be easy.  She's almost 3 years old, and she's already got a mouth on her.  I do tend to laugh (not where she can see it) when she's banging on one of her brothers' doors yelling, "Open the GD door!"  Although 'GD' isn't what she says.  She says the whole shebang!

She loves the color pink.  She'd wear pink everyday if she had enough clothes.  She looks the part of a girly girl until you see her chasing her brothers around the house with a sword playing 'good guys v bad guys'.  She hops right into a creek bed to play in the water without a second thought to getting her clothes wet or messing up her hair.  She's just being herself, a kid, and that's exactly how it should be.

Strength comes from within.  Persevering when you have obstacles thrown in your way.  Figuring out a work around or just smashing through them with shear will and determination.

From my experience, being a strong woman is great until it's not.  People love that I have opinions until I don't agree with them.  Then their feathers get ruffled.  It's just the way life is.

My parents allowed me to grow up being my tomboy, strong-willed, opinionated, and stubborn self.  (Although I don't exactly agree with the stubborn part, but that's neither here nor there.)And it served me well.  I didn't give up on things when they got hard.  I worked through them.  Not saying I didn't have my moments of 'why me!' or a brief pity party every now and then.  (I am only human.).  However being comfortable in my own skin, not being afraid to speak up, and being true to myself has served me well.  And that's exactly what I want to give my daughter.

My daughter and I will probably butt-heads a lot while she's growing up.  And I'm sure I will not being enjoying that when it happens.  But raising a strong, independent daughter is worth the challenge.

Advice for my daughter:  When life gives you limes, make margaritas!!