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Hello Steemit, my name is Aubrey, though, in the creative or online world I often go by True.

For those of you who are looking for the short story, I consider myself to be an artist, a creator, a seeker of my own truth, and a conductor of joy. I hold a Bachelor’s Degree in Human Development and Family Studies, minor in Sociology and a Master’s Degree in Social Work.

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I enjoy travelling, and really love to take photos.

Italy Trip - ROME

Italy Trip - VENICE

France Trip - Paris @ The Bridge Of Love

Aruba Trip 2016 - The Famous Natural Pools

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Things I consistently enjoy include being a wife, a mother, gardening, traveling, poetry, nature, singing, photography, laughing, advocating for equality and family policies, and finding new ways to express my creativity.

For a dive deeper into an unnecessary story of my own journey towards where I am today, feel free to read on.

My story begins and ends with the most basic of universal battles; fear and love.

I have always held a desire to expand my knowledge and turn it into wisdom as quickly as possible which became so frustrating at times as I attempted to grow beyond the understanding of my current age while growing up. I recall this leading to me not quite fitting in with the popular crowd as much as I wished I would at many points in my life. But that is not what my story is about.

Some years ago I decided to take a huge leap in this consciousness after undergoing what I would eventually look back to see as the most difficult time of my life. At that time I was forced to face my biggest fears and evaluate everything I knew to be true in order to find what I had lost in myself, as well as seek to find what I had not yet discovered.

Ultimately I decided to go in a dramatically different direction than I had ever before, which I felt was necessary even withstanding the backlash I knew I would receive from my current community.

In doing so, I ended so many things that were before an important part of me, and began what I thought was a path of discovery about life. As it turns out, I found that gaining a comprehensive understanding about the world must first begin with a full understanding of self.

It was the most uncomfortable thing I have ever done – to evaluate why I thought the way I did and compare it with my new perspective. Thus I began my own path towards finding my true self. Everything I do is now a part of this self-discovery process. As I have allowed myself to feel love and belonging, I have found an incredible amount of confidence in my own expression, creativity and passion.

I now understand this experience to be joy as I had never before known.

One milestone I accomplished along the way was discovering my love for educating families/individuals about family life and navigating the relationships within them. This led to my Bachelor’s Degree where I also earned a provisional certification towards Family Life Education. To further this knowledge of understanding and relationships, I was headed for a Master’s Degree in Marriage and Family Therapy (MFT).

After consulting with several MFT’s of their own experience, they all directed me towards gaining my education in social work instead. They promised this degree would allow me to be more marketable, have a more diverse amount of job opportunities and more easily run my own practice one day, if that is what I wished. I, however, was not convinced.

Social work sounded emotionally difficult, too close to my own past and frankly, sad. I ignored their advice right up until I was supposed to start the MFT program when my own research led to the same conclusion: social work was going to get me closer to where I wanted to be professionally.

Anyone who has ever applied to a college or university, especially to graduate school, understands how majorly patient, flexible and resilient you must be in order to apply for acceptance into the program of your choice.

The idea of being accepted into a program only to then change degrees and have to go through the process all over again just makes me want to vomit. So I had to decide this was important enough to me to wait another full year to then hopefully be accepted and attend a program in social work.

Spoiler alert - it was worth it.

Gaining True Perspective About My Motivations

The Social Work program at California State University, San Bernardino was rigorous and pushed me closer towards the goal of gaining the perspective I wanted to have which was fully accepting, empathetic, understanding and loving of the life paths of all who walk this earth.

Not because of an urge I feel from a God or religious leader, but because in doing so would be true to my own morals and beliefs surrounding my purpose in this life.

Now I realize this all may be a bit too much hippie shit for some or many of you who read this. I fully accept that those of you I just described may have a perspective that sees me, and likely most things that bring happiness to my life, in this way. That is okay. I know my viewpoint is not for everyone.

For those of you who are resonating with my purpose and my path, I feel honored that you consider me as someone whose story you may care to follow. I have always held any work I do personally or professionally so close to me and I have been quite hesitant to share it publicly in the past because of this.

I debated even joining the Steemit community for nearly a month after finding out about it due to a fear of lack of acceptance or the potentially overwhelming feeling of vulnerability I would feel in doing so.

Then I was reminded of my belief in the sharing of truth and beauty, and felt I owed it to myself to once again, face my fear, challenge my own comfort, and become a part of the collective sharing of that truth.

In writing about my story now, my mind is continuously reminded of this quote:
###“Beauty is truth, truth beauty. That is all you know on earth, and all you need to know.” –John Keats

Please feel free to introduce yourself in my comments, I would really like to meet the community and get to know you all. I will be here contributing my talents any way they may be of use, please don't hesitate to reach out and say hello. I personally think Steemit has quite a bit of potential to do some really good things for people, and I intend on being here for that.

Aubrey