Growing up, I felt different from many of my childhood peers. To my adolescent sensibilities, my name was odd; theirs was melodic and sing-songy. I didn’t look like them. I carried secrets buried deep within me that never saw the light of day.

I didn’t know it back then, but in time I soon came to realize that I was unique. Even though that uniqueness set me apart from everyone else, I believed it did so in a bad way. All of that negativity fed into my low self-esteem. I didn’t like myself very much and I went about getting attention in the wrong way. I was trying too hard to be someone I wasn’t.

It wasn’t until I grew into adulthood — long past my teens, my twenties and even my thirties — before I began to accept who I was and those traits that made me unique. Am I everyone’s cup of tea? No, and I really don’t care to be. But what I will do is celebrate the traits, qualities and quirks that make me the woman I have become: Valerie.