Empowerment. I hear the word constantly. What exactly is empowerment:
To the dictionary: em-pow-er, v. give someone the authority or power to do something; make someone stronger and more confident, esp. in controlling their life and claiming their rights - em-pow-er-ment, noun
To me?
I am not Webster. I can't give you a clear definition on what empowerment is. I can give you what the feeling is. Empowerment feels like freedom and happiness. Empowerment takes me back to those days when I was five years old, being free, living without a care in the world. I would paint on my grandmother's walls and sing anything on the radio, and no one could tell me I was wrong. To be honest, I felt more empowered when I was 5 than 14. Why? When I was 5, there were no pressures on me; no one was telling me what I should be like or what I should look like. I was confident and free--or empowered.
As I got older, I felt less empowered. I felt like I was conforming to what everyone wanted me to be, and not who I was supposed to be. As a teenager, many of us go through identity issues, and I think I was facing mine. I felt like someone else was controlling my life, and not I. Once I became a sophomore in high school, I was able to create my own identity and achieve empowerment. I did my own thing because I was becoming more comfortable with who I was, and I was finally becoming free and happy with myself.
As I got older, I felt less empowered. I felt like I was conforming to what everyone wanted me to be, and not who I was supposed to be. As a teenager, many of us go through identity issues, and I think I was facing mine. I felt like someone else was controlling my life, and not I. Once I became a sophomore in high school, I was able to create my own identity and achieve empowerment. I did my own thing because I was becoming more comfortable with who I was, and I was finally becoming free and happy with myself.
I am my biggest obstacle when it comes to achieving my empowerment. I don't like blaming others and things for my problems--and it 'takes two to tango' as my mother would say. I let people control who I was at an age when I knew the difference between the right and wrong people. I accepted everything people told me and I did everything people said. I was not Nichelle. I was another person; a shadow of another person. I lacked my own beliefs and thoughts, and restriction of the mind contradicts empowerment.
Today, I'm not fully empowered, but I'm more than half-way there. I am more confident in myself, and I smile a little harder and a little more. I do what I want, and I enjoy doing it. I have my own beliefs, and I feel like that 5 year old girl again. I feel free and happy. I am happy and free.
