When I was six years old, I run away from home. 

It wasn't a planned scape or anything like that, it was more like an impromptu get away with a classmate.  After school, I hopped on a different bus to go with my friend to his house, instead of going to mine. 

I didn't think of any consequences, of course not, I was six! I was just being curious and I made the decision to go without thinking about anybody else. 

I’m at my friend’s house and you can imagine his mom’s face when she sees him coming for dinner with a new friend…is still to this day that we are friends and our parents talk about this!

Let me explain where I’m going with this.

A few weeks ago, I was thinking how I would introduce myself to someone that doesn't know me. 

I thought first of the typical introduction: my name, where I was born, talking about my family and my studies…

But as I was listing all these things about my life, I started thinking, how is all of this telling anyone WHO AM I? 

These are facts, things that happened in my life, events, environments that changed, external circumstances that in reality do not say anything about who I am. 

This got me thinking, how do I define myself and how do I find who am I for real? 

My view is that to find who you really are, you need to explore your life experiences and look at them from an advantage point to see how you behave during those times. 

That baseline that you get, that constant behavior that is repeated time and time again, that’s what it defines you. 

With that knowledge, I started looking back at my life, and since they say that you form your personality and view of the world by the time you are 6, I looked at those years of my life before I was six. 

I wanted to see how I behave before I was aware of the world around me.

What I found was very interesting. I discovered a series of events that showed a clear PATTERN. 

When I run away from home at 6 years old, it wasn't the first time I tried to escape, or the second, or the third…  

Talking to my parents I discovered that I was always trying to get somewhere else whenever they tried to keep me controlled. 

When I was only 9 months old, my dad was studying to pass his exams to be an official in the Spanish navy. He would study at home and set me inside my playpen, one of those with the fish net type all around. 

He always remembers that he put me in there, and after a while when he looked back to check on me, I was gone from the playpen. 

He would look and try to find how I got out, and then find out a small hole from where I managed to escape.

Then they would put me to sleep in my crib, turn off the lights, close the door, and as soon as they did that, I would stand up, start shaking the crib and jumped out in a few occasions. 

Whenever they sit me in the stroller, one of those with the fix straps; I would squeeze myself to one side of the straps and get going on my own…

I was a little Houdini… I was always on the run trying to explore my surroundings, I was curious and adventurous, I was carefree and bold and enjoying every minute. I was always GETTING OUT OF THE BOX. 

The sad part of the story is that after I turned 6, I started understanding the dynamics at home, the problems, the worries, the pressures at school and I started loosing my hair too. 

All these things buried my true essence and I lost my curiosity and boldness. 

I became shy and quiet, and worried about not disturbing others, always trying to make sure that everyone around me was ok, even if it meant keeping myself down. I got myself STUCK in my own box. 

That dimmed version of myself lasted for many years until I came to US. I can see now that the decision of me coming here was my true self, pushing through and coming out the box. 

You have your own boxes where you get stuck; you get TRAPPED at different moments in your life. 

Sometimes others put you in a box, sometimes you make your own boxes without realizing it, and you feel like you are going nowhere. 

I remind myself daily to look outside of my box, to be ok with the fear of GETTING OUT of my COMFORT ZONE and to make sure that I’m always GROWING and expanding.

So, if you want to find out who you are, take a look at your own story and look for the patterns and identify your ESSENCE. 

DONT’ LET OTHERS DEFINE WHO YOU ARE.

Don't put yourself in a box.

Don't limit your GREATNESS.

 You define who you are.

 YOU CHOOSE.

Shout it out: Oh Hell Yeah I AM GREAT!

xoxo,

Sofia