Hello,

My name is Rita and I have been on this for a couple weeks but haven't posted yet. I was lamenting on what to say so kept pushing it off. Something has shifted in my these last couple days though that I can not explain but I am feeling pretty amazing right now so thought I would just jump in.

I think one reason I was hesitant to post is because I have not been feeling myself for a couple years now, maybe longer. Since a young girl I had this idea of being real. I attribute this to two Joes in my life. One was my Uncle who use to sing to over and over again "Rio Rita" and I misheard it as Real Rita. The other was a good friend of the family who use to lovingly call me little faker. As I remember it it was because I called him out on faking sleeping. Since then I tried to be as real as possible, but as many children, I also wanted to be liked by my peers and fit in.

I was an introvert back then and even though I am more an ambivert now, I still relate to my introverted side then. As an introvert in group settings all my life, I was always "out of my comfort zone". It really is not right to put introverts in that type of situation. They should have the right to be who they are as everyone else. How are you supposed to learn and grow to your full potential when you are put in a place of anxiety for you every day? It is this anxiety that first took me out of integrity of who I really am. So as much as I desired to be real, I was not in a place where I really could be.

So this brings me today. I have learned a lot over the years reading many "self help books", observing, talking with life coaches and taking courses on it as well. I've always had this desire to improve myself. The biggest lesson I learned though, is that I was always fine just who I was at any given period of time. I still have the desire to make adjustments to my life that will fulfill me more but I am doing from a strong empowering place instead of a place of weakness and self doubt.

So who is The Real Rita? I am still working on that. It is really a journey to be REAL, but I know now some of the things that I need to do to live a REAL life. One is to live with integrity. I have been out of my integrity on many things in my life time and I still have a couple things to work on and that is ok. I do know one thing about me, I am a Dreamer. I believe everyone should pursue those passions and dreams and much of the depression now a days is because people are not living up to their dreams , values and integrity. This is why I am writing this. To take others on my journey of pursuing a REAL LIFE, and hope that it helps them to do the same.

As I go through this I am going to be best to be vulnerable and show you the times I am not feeling so great about myself, the ways I am out of integrity and not living up to my values and the doubts I have. I believe that being vulnerable is very important in life and I am a pretty open person when it comes to that. I am not afraid to look the fool as the many people have heard me sing at Karaoke events can attest too. I wrote this saying over a decade ago now. Don't be afraid to be vulnerable, you never know who is going to fall in love with who you real are. So I hope my openness will encourage others to be open as well.

I hope you enjoy my REAL LIFE journey and I would love to hear your hopes, dreams, fears, doubt, and anything else you wish to share with me.